Rector, AR 72461 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Rector, AR, ZIP 72461
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/31, roughly 215 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/01, about 215 frost-free days later.
Zone 7b (5 to 10°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Rector, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 7b around Rector has about 9 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Rector's last frost
03/31 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/12 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/15 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Rector compares
About 215 days separate Rector's last and first frost, putting it 14,112 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AR, it ranks 461 of 687.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Rector's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Rector can differ from the 72461 normal.