La Plata, MO 63549 Frost Dates
63549, near La Plata, MO: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/19, about 234 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 180 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts La Plata in Zone 6a (-10 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
La Plata's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/19 isn't a guarantee
04/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
La Plata against the rest of the dataset
About 180 days separate La Plata's last and first frost, putting it 24,938 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MO, it ranks 1,014 of 1,129.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 63549: local microclimates, on what one yard in La Plata can differ from the 63549 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and La Plata's frost date answer different questions.