Benton, LA 71165 Frost Dates
71165, 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.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Benton in Zone 8b (15 to 20°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
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
At roughly 268 frost-free days, Benton places 5,796 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within LA, it ranks 404 of 710.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71165: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Benton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Benton's dates instead of trusting one.