Okolona, AR 71962 Frost Dates
71962, near Okolona, AR: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/20, about 204 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 234 days after the last spring frost.
Okolona sits in USDA Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
Okolona'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/28 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Okolona against the rest of the dataset
About 234 days separate Okolona's last and first frost, putting it 9,822 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AR, it ranks 191 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71962: local microclimates, on what one yard in Okolona can differ from the 71962 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Okolona's frost date answer different questions.