Alta Vista, KS 66834 Frost Dates
66834, near Alta Vista, KS: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/11, about 226 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/25, roughly 194 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 Alta Vista, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Alta Vista'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.
Why 04/11 isn't a guarantee
04/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Alta Vista against the rest of the dataset
About 194 days separate Alta Vista's last and first frost, putting it 19,586 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KS, it ranks 224 of 745.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 66834: the frost range, on how to read the range around Alta Vista's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Alta Vista can differ from the 66834 normal.