Clay Center, NE 68933 Frost Dates
68933, near Clay Center, NE: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/19, roughly 234 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 181 days after the last spring frost.
Clay Center sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Clay Center's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/19 isn't a guarantee
04/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Clay Center against the rest of the dataset
About 181 days separate Clay Center's last and first frost, putting it 24,662 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NE, it ranks 49 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68933: local microclimates, on what one yard in Clay Center can differ from the 68933 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Clay Center's frost date answer different questions.