Yale, IL 62481 Frost Dates
Yale, IL: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/14, roughly 229 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 187 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Yale, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until Yale's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/14 isn't a guarantee
04/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/30 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Yale against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 187 frost-free days, Yale places 22,645 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 809 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 62481's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Yale can differ from the 62481 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Yale's frost date answer different questions.