Nickerson, NE 68044 Frost Dates
68044, near Nickerson, NE: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 172 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Nickerson, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Nickerson'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.
Why 04/23 isn't a guarantee
04/23 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 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Nickerson against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 172 frost-free days, Nickerson places 28,483 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 163 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68044: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Nickerson's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Nickerson's dates instead of trusting one.