West Frankfort, IL 62896 Frost Dates
62896, near West Frankfort, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/04, about 219 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 206 days after the last spring frost.
West Frankfort sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
West Frankfort'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
04/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/19 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.
West Frankfort against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 206 frost-free days, West Frankfort places 15,994 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 89 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62896: the frost range, on how to read the range around West Frankfort's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in West Frankfort can differ from the 62896 normal.