Papillion, NE 68046 Frost Dates
68046, near Papillion, NE: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/17, roughly 232 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 183 days after the last spring frost.
Papillion sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Papillion'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 04/17 isn't a guarantee
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/03 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.
Papillion against the rest of the dataset
Papillion's growing season runs about 183 days, ranking 23,771 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NE, it ranks 19 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68046: local microclimates, on what one yard in Papillion can differ from the 68046 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Papillion's frost date answer different questions.