Wickes, AR 71972 Frost Dates
71972, near Wickes, AR: the frost window
Around 03/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 210 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 235 days after the last spring frost.
Wickes 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
Wickes'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 03/26 isn't a guarantee
03/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Wickes against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 235 frost-free days, Wickes places 9,642 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AR, it ranks 147 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 71972: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Wickes's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Wickes's dates instead of trusting one.