Natchitoches, LA 71458 Frost Dates
Natchitoches, LA: when does the frost end?
Around 02/28 is the usual last spring frost, about 184 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/01, roughly 275 days after the last spring frost.
Natchitoches sits in USDA Zone 9a (20 to 25°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 14 weeks until Natchitoches's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
02/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Natchitoches against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 275 frost-free days, Natchitoches places 5,121 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within LA, it ranks 300 of 710.
Learn more
Before leaning on 71458's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Natchitoches's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Natchitoches's dates instead of trusting one.