Houston, TX 77216 Frost Dates
77216, near Houston, TX: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/13, roughly 169 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/09, roughly 300 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Houston in Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
Houston's growing season runs out in roughly 15 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
02/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Houston against the rest of the dataset
About 300 days separate Houston's last and first frost, putting it 4,004 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within TX, it ranks 336 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 77216: the frost range, on how to read the range around Houston's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Houston can differ from the 77216 normal.