New Orleans, LA 70044 Frost Dates
70044, near New Orleans, LA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 02/10, about 166 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/17, roughly 309 days after the last spring frost.
New Orleans sits in USDA Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
New Orleans's growing season runs out in roughly 16 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 02/10 isn't a guarantee
02/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
New Orleans against the rest of the dataset
New Orleans's growing season runs about 309 days, ranking 3,594 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within LA, it ranks 88 of 710.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 70044: local microclimates, on what one yard in New Orleans can differ from the 70044 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and New Orleans's frost date answer different questions.