Ponca City, OK 74601 Frost Dates
74601, near Ponca City, OK: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/10, roughly 225 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 200 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Ponca City in Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
Ponca City'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 04/10 isn't a guarantee
04/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/25 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ponca City against the rest of the dataset
Ponca City's growing season runs about 200 days, ranking 17,725 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within OK, it ranks 666 of 764.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 74601: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Ponca City's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Ponca City's dates instead of trusting one.