Western, NE 68464 Frost Dates
68464, near Western, NE: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 169 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 Western, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Western'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 04/26 isn't a guarantee
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/12 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.
Western against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 169 frost-free days, Western places 29,606 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 244 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68464: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Western's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Western's dates instead of trusting one.