Monticello, AR 71657 Frost Dates
71657, near Monticello, AR: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/18, roughly 202 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 238 days after the last spring frost.
Monticello sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Monticello'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 03/18 isn't a guarantee
03/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 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.
Monticello against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 238 frost-free days, Monticello places 8,961 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AR, it ranks 102 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71657: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Monticello's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Monticello's dates instead of trusting one.