McDougal, AR 72441 Frost Dates
72441, near McDougal, AR: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/27, roughly 211 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/04, roughly 224 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts McDougal in Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
McDougal'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 McDougal's last frost
03/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
McDougal against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 224 frost-free days, McDougal places 11,970 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AR, it ranks 362 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 72441: local microclimates, on what one yard in McDougal can differ from the 72441 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and McDougal's frost date answer different questions.