Ames, TX 77575 Frost Dates
77575, near Ames, TX: the frost window
Around 02/20 is the usual last spring frost, about 176 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/04, roughly 292 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 Ames, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Ames's growing season runs out in roughly 14 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 02/20 isn't a guarantee
02/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ames against the rest of the dataset
About 292 days separate Ames's last and first frost, putting it 4,374 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within TX, it ranks 546 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 77575: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ames can differ from the 77575 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Ames's frost date answer different questions.