Lincoln, NE 68544 Frost Dates
68544, 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
At roughly 171 frost-free days, Lincoln places 28,572 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 191 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68544: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lincoln can differ from the 68544 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Lincoln's frost date answer different questions.