Plato, MO 65543 Frost Dates
Plato, MO: when does the frost end?
Around 04/15 is the usual last spring frost, about 230 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 188 days after the last spring frost.
Plato sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
With roughly 8 weeks until Plato's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/15 isn't a guarantee
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/29 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Plato against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 188 frost-free days, Plato places 22,256 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MO, it ranks 829 of 1,129.
Learn more
Before leaning on 65543's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Plato's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Plato can differ from the 65543 normal.