Salem, MO 65501 Frost Dates
65501, near Salem, MO: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/17, about 232 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 182 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Salem, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Salem'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 04/17 isn't a guarantee
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 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.
Salem against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 182 frost-free days, Salem places 24,140 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MO, it ranks 970 of 1,129.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 65501: local microclimates, on what one yard in Salem can differ from the 65501 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Salem's frost date answer different questions.