The Hills, TX 78738 Frost Dates
78738, near The Hills, 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 12/03, roughly 291 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts The Hills in Zone 9a (20 to 25°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
The Hills'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.
The Hills against the rest of the dataset
The Hills's growing season runs about 291 days, ranking 4,453 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within TX, it ranks 606 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 78738: local microclimates, on what one yard in The Hills can differ from the 78738 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and The Hills's frost date answer different questions.