Harvel, IL 62538 Frost Dates
62538, near Harvel, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/12, about 227 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 190 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Harvel, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Harvel's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/29 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Harvel against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 190 frost-free days, Harvel places 21,327 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 550 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62538: local microclimates, on what one yard in Harvel can differ from the 62538 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Harvel's frost date answer different questions.