Decatur, AR 72722 Frost Dates
72722, near Decatur, AR: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/05, roughly 220 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 204 days after the last spring frost.
Decatur sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
Decatur's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/05 isn't a guarantee
04/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Decatur against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 204 frost-free days, Decatur places 16,641 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AR, it ranks 567 of 687.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 72722: local microclimates, on what one yard in Decatur can differ from the 72722 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Decatur's frost date answer different questions.