La Ward, TX 77971 Frost Dates
77971, near La Ward, TX: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/01, roughly 157 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/21, roughly 321 days after the last spring frost.
La Ward sits in USDA Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
La Ward's growing season runs out in roughly 16 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 02/01 isn't a guarantee
02/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/24 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
La Ward against the rest of the dataset
La Ward's growing season runs about 321 days, ranking 3,314 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within TX, it ranks 219 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 77971: local microclimates, on what one yard in La Ward can differ from the 77971 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and La Ward's frost date answer different questions.