Goldthwaite, TX 76844 Frost Dates
76844, near Goldthwaite, TX: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/16, roughly 200 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/13, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
Goldthwaite sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Goldthwaite's growing season runs out in roughly 11 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/16 isn't a guarantee
03/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Goldthwaite against the rest of the dataset
Goldthwaite's growing season runs about 239 days, ranking 8,841 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within TX, it ranks 1,962 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 76844: the frost range, on how to read the range around Goldthwaite's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Goldthwaite can differ from the 76844 normal.