Rulo, NE 68431 Frost Dates
68431, near Rulo, NE: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/18, roughly 233 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 177 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 Rulo, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Rulo'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 04/18 isn't a guarantee
04/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rulo against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 177 frost-free days, Rulo places 26,286 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 95 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68431: local microclimates, on what one yard in Rulo can differ from the 68431 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Rulo's frost date answer different questions.