Elaine, AR 72353 Frost Dates
72353, near Elaine, AR: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/17, about 201 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 238 days after the last spring frost.
Elaine sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Elaine'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
03/17 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 04/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elaine against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 238 frost-free days, Elaine places 9,021 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AR, it ranks 115 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 72353: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Elaine's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Elaine's dates instead of trusting one.