Wathena, KS 66090 Frost Dates
66090, near Wathena, KS: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/19, roughly 234 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 180 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Wathena, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Wathena'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Wathena against the rest of the dataset
About 180 days separate Wathena's last and first frost, putting it 24,934 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KS, it ranks 514 of 745.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 66090: local microclimates, on what one yard in Wathena can differ from the 66090 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Wathena's frost date answer different questions.