Waggoner, IL 62572 Frost Dates
62572, near Waggoner, IL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/07, roughly 222 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/29, roughly 205 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 Waggoner, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Waggoner's growing season runs out in roughly 9 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
04/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Waggoner against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 205 frost-free days, Waggoner places 16,418 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 121 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62572: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Waggoner's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Waggoner's dates instead of trusting one.