Elm Creek, NE 68836 Frost Dates
68836, near Elm Creek, NE: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Elm Creek in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Elm Creek'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
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 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.
Elm Creek against the rest of the dataset
About 169 days separate Elm Creek's last and first frost, putting it 29,511 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NE, it ranks 234 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68836: the frost range, on how to read the range around Elm Creek's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Elm Creek can differ from the 68836 normal.