Prescott, AR 71857 Frost Dates
71857, near Prescott, AR: the frost window
Around 03/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 213 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/06, roughly 224 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Prescott in Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
Prescott'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 03/29 isn't a guarantee
03/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Prescott against the rest of the dataset
About 224 days separate Prescott's last and first frost, putting it 11,877 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AR, it ranks 342 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71857: local microclimates, on what one yard in Prescott can differ from the 71857 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Prescott's frost date answer different questions.