Austin, TX 78742 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Austin, TX, ZIP 78742
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/12, roughly 196 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/16, about 252 frost-free days later.
Austin sits in USDA Zone 9a (20 to 25°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.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 9a around Austin has about 11 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/20 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/02 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Austin compares
About 252 days separate Austin's last and first frost, putting it 7,196 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within TX, it ranks 1,562 of 2,558.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Austin's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Austin's dates instead of trusting one.