Kearney, NE 68847 Frost Dates
68847, near Kearney, NE: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 162 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Kearney, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Kearney's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/30 isn't a guarantee
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/16 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Kearney against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 162 frost-free days, Kearney places 31,633 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 347 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68847: the frost range, on how to read the range around Kearney's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Kearney can differ from the 68847 normal.