Stonefort, IL 62987 Frost Dates
62987, near Stonefort, IL: the frost window
Around 04/14 is the usual last spring frost, about 229 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 189 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Stonefort in Zone 7a (0 to 5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Stonefort'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.
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 03/28 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.
Stonefort against the rest of the dataset
About 189 days separate Stonefort's last and first frost, putting it 21,740 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 649 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62987: the frost range, on how to read the range around Stonefort's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Stonefort can differ from the 62987 normal.