Atkinson, NE 68713 Frost Dates
68713, near Atkinson, NE: the frost window
Around 05/04 is the usual last spring frost, about 249 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 152 days after the last spring frost.
Atkinson sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Atkinson's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Atkinson's last frost
05/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Atkinson against the rest of the dataset
About 152 days separate Atkinson's last and first frost, putting it 34,794 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NE, it ranks 499 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68713: local microclimates, on what one yard in Atkinson can differ from the 68713 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Atkinson's frost date answer different questions.