McAllen, TX 78501 Frost Dates
78501, near McAllen, TX: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 01/09, about 134 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 01/03, roughly 365 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 10a (30 to 35°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 McAllen, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
McAllen's growing season runs out in roughly 18 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around McAllen's last frost
01/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
McAllen against the rest of the dataset
McAllen's growing season runs about 365 days, ranking 398 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within TX, it ranks 7 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 78501: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 10a and McAllen's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around McAllen's dates instead of trusting one.