St. Joseph, LA 71366 Frost Dates
71366, near St. Joseph, LA: the frost window
Around 03/13 is the usual last spring frost, about 197 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 242 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts St. Joseph 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
St. Joseph'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 03/13 isn't a guarantee
03/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
St. Joseph against the rest of the dataset
About 242 days separate St. Joseph's last and first frost, putting it 8,394 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within LA, it ranks 634 of 710.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71366: the frost range, on how to read the range around St. Joseph's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in St. Joseph can differ from the 71366 normal.