Holdrege, NE 68949 Frost Dates
68949, near Holdrege, NE: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/02, roughly 247 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 162 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Holdrege, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Holdrege'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Holdrege against the rest of the dataset
Holdrege's growing season runs about 162 days, ranking 31,709 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NE, it ranks 349 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 68949: local microclimates, on what one yard in Holdrege can differ from the 68949 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Holdrege's frost date answer different questions.