Lincoln, NE 68508 Frost Dates
68508, near Lincoln, NE: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/24, about 239 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 171 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 Lincoln, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lincoln'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lincoln against the rest of the dataset
Lincoln's growing season runs about 171 days, ranking 28,565 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NE, it ranks 184 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68508: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Lincoln's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lincoln's dates instead of trusting one.