Ball, LA 71405 Frost Dates
71405, near Ball, LA: the frost window
Around 03/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 200 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/08, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Ball in Zone 9a (20 to 25°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
Ball's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/16 isn't a guarantee
03/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/25 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.
Ball against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 239 frost-free days, Ball places 8,827 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within LA, it ranks 656 of 710.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71405: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ball can differ from the 71405 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Ball's frost date answer different questions.