Benton, AR 72018 Frost Dates
72018, near Benton, AR: the frost window
Around 03/24 is the usual last spring frost, about 208 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/07, roughly 229 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Benton 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
Benton'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.
The actual range around Benton's last frost
03/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/03 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Benton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 229 frost-free days, Benton places 10,547 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AR, it ranks 246 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 72018: the frost range, on how to read the range around Benton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Benton can differ from the 72018 normal.