Opelousas, LA 70570 Frost Dates
Opelousas, LA: when does the frost end?
Around 02/28 is the usual last spring frost, about 184 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/23, roughly 267 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Opelousas, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 12 weeks until Opelousas's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 02/28 isn't a guarantee
02/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Opelousas against the rest of the dataset
About 267 days separate Opelousas's last and first frost, putting it 5,839 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within LA, it ranks 433 of 710.
Learn more
Before leaning on 70570's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Opelousas's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Opelousas's dates instead of trusting one.