Cypress, IL 62973 Frost Dates
62973, near Cypress, IL: the frost window
Around 04/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 217 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/31, roughly 211 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 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 Cypress, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Cypress'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.
Why 04/02 isn't a guarantee
04/02 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 04/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cypress against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 211 frost-free days, Cypress places 14,887 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 44 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62973: local microclimates, on what one yard in Cypress can differ from the 62973 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Cypress's frost date answer different questions.