West Memphis, AR 72301 Frost Dates
72301, near West Memphis, AR: the frost window
Around 03/19 is the usual last spring frost, about 203 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 235 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts West Memphis 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
West Memphis'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
03/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/01 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.
West Memphis against the rest of the dataset
About 235 days separate West Memphis's last and first frost, putting it 9,563 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AR, it ranks 136 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 72301: the frost range, on how to read the range around West Memphis's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in West Memphis can differ from the 72301 normal.