North Little Rock, AR 72117 Frost Dates
72117, near North Little Rock, AR: the frost window
Around 03/21 is the usual last spring frost, about 205 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 234 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts North Little Rock 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
North Little Rock'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
03/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/02 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.
North Little Rock against the rest of the dataset
North Little Rock's growing season runs about 234 days, ranking 9,692 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within AR, it ranks 179 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 72117: local microclimates, on what one yard in North Little Rock can differ from the 72117 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and North Little Rock's frost date answer different questions.