Cotton Valley, LA 71018 Frost Dates
71018, near Cotton Valley, LA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/17, about 201 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/14, roughly 241 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 Cotton Valley, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Cotton Valley's growing season runs out in roughly 11 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/17 isn't a guarantee
03/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cotton Valley against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 241 frost-free days, Cotton Valley places 8,601 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within LA, it ranks 643 of 710.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71018: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Cotton Valley's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Cotton Valley's dates instead of trusting one.