Crete, NE 68333 Frost Dates
68333, near Crete, 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 10/12, roughly 170 days after the last spring frost.
Crete 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
Crete's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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.
Crete against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 170 frost-free days, Crete places 28,956 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 202 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68333: local microclimates, on what one yard in Crete can differ from the 68333 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Crete's frost date answer different questions.