Smith Center, KS 66967 Frost Dates
66967, near Smith Center, KS: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/24, about 239 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 173 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 Smith Center, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Smith Center'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
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Smith Center against the rest of the dataset
About 173 days separate Smith Center's last and first frost, putting it 27,958 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KS, it ranks 616 of 745.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 66967: the frost range, on how to read the range around Smith Center's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Smith Center can differ from the 66967 normal.