Culbertson, NE 69024 Frost Dates
69024, near Culbertson, 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 10/09, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
Culbertson 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.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Culbertson'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 05/02 isn't a guarantee
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Culbertson against the rest of the dataset
About 158 days separate Culbertson's last and first frost, putting it 33,106 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NE, it ranks 420 of 605.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 69024: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Culbertson's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Culbertson's dates instead of trusting one.