Iowa, LA 70650 Frost Dates
Iowa, LA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 02/19, about 175 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/04, roughly 292 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 Iowa, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 14 weeks until Iowa's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
02/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Iowa against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 292 frost-free days, Iowa places 4,364 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within LA, it ranks 212 of 710.
Learn more
Before leaning on 70650's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Iowa can differ from the 70650 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Iowa's frost date answer different questions.