Lawrence, KS 66046 Frost Dates
66046, near Lawrence, KS: the frost window
Around 04/21 is the usual last spring frost, about 236 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 177 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 Lawrence, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lawrence'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 04/21 isn't a guarantee
04/21 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 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lawrence against the rest of the dataset
About 177 days separate Lawrence's last and first frost, putting it 25,977 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KS, it ranks 574 of 745.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 66046: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lawrence can differ from the 66046 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Lawrence's frost date answer different questions.