Benton, LA 71154 Frost Dates
71154, near Benton, LA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 02/28, about 184 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/24, roughly 268 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 Benton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Benton's growing season runs out in roughly 13 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Benton's last frost
02/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Benton against the rest of the dataset
Benton's growing season runs about 268 days, ranking 5,790 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within LA, it ranks 398 of 710.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71154: the frost range, on how to read the range around Benton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Benton can differ from the 71154 normal.