Dorchester, NE 68343 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Dorchester, NE, ZIP 68343
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/13, about 169 frost-free days later.
Dorchester 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.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6a around Dorchester has about 7 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/12 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/06 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Dorchester compares
At roughly 169 frost-free days, Dorchester places 29,551 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 239 of 605.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6a and Dorchester's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Dorchester's dates instead of trusting one.