Lincoln, NE 68516 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Lincoln, NE?
Around 04/27 is the usual last spring frost, about 242 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/10, about 164 frost-free days later.
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.
What to do before the first frost
About 6 weeks of growing season left in Lincoln before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Lincoln's last frost
04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/13 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/08 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Lincoln compares
At roughly 164 frost-free days, Lincoln places 30,798 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 316 of 605.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Lincoln can differ from the 68516 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 6a and Lincoln's frost date answer different questions.