Temple, TX 76540 Frost Dates
76540, near Temple, TX: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/14, about 198 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/20, roughly 251 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 Temple, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Temple's growing season runs out in roughly 12 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/14 isn't a guarantee
03/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Temple against the rest of the dataset
About 251 days separate Temple's last and first frost, putting it 7,283 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within TX, it ranks 1,594 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 76540: the frost range, on how to read the range around Temple's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Temple can differ from the 76540 normal.