Orchard, NE 68764 Frost Dates
68764, near Orchard, NE: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/07, about 252 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/30, roughly 144 days after the last spring frost.
Orchard 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
Orchard'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Orchard against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 144 frost-free days, Orchard places 36,455 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 561 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68764: the frost range, on how to read the range around Orchard's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Orchard can differ from the 68764 normal.