Manhattan, KS 66506 Frost Dates
Manhattan, KS: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/16, roughly 231 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 185 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 Manhattan, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Manhattan's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
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 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Manhattan against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 185 frost-free days, Manhattan places 23,053 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KS, it ranks 410 of 745.
Learn more
Before leaning on 66506's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Manhattan's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Manhattan can differ from the 66506 normal.