West Plains, MO 65775 Frost Dates
65775, near West Plains, MO: the frost window
Around 04/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 231 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 West Plains 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
West Plains'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/16 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 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
West Plains against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 189 frost-free days, West Plains places 21,458 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MO, it ranks 785 of 1,129.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 65775: local microclimates, on what one yard in West Plains can differ from the 65775 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and West Plains's frost date answer different questions.