Riverdale, NE 68870 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Riverdale, NE, ZIP 68870
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/10, about 162 frost-free days later.
Riverdale sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 5b around Riverdale has about 6 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/16 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/12 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Riverdale compares
At roughly 162 frost-free days, Riverdale places 31,868 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NE, it ranks 362 of 605.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Riverdale's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Riverdale's dates instead of trusting one.