Goldthwaite, TX 76880 Frost Dates
76880, near Goldthwaite, TX: the frost window
Around 03/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 200 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/13, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Goldthwaite in Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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
At roughly 239 frost-free days, Goldthwaite places 8,842 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within TX, it ranks 1,963 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 76880: local microclimates, on what one yard in Goldthwaite can differ from the 76880 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Goldthwaite's frost date answer different questions.