Madison, KS 66860 Frost Dates
Madison, KS: when does the frost end?
Around 04/12 is the usual last spring frost, about 227 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 193 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 Madison, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until Madison's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/12 isn't a guarantee
04/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/29 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.
Madison against the rest of the dataset
About 193 days separate Madison's last and first frost, putting it 20,013 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KS, it ranks 243 of 745.
Learn more
Before leaning on 66860's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Madison's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Madison can differ from the 66860 normal.