Austin, TX 78768 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Austin, TX, ZIP 78768
Around 02/20 is the usual last spring frost, about 176 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 12/03, about 291 frost-free days later.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Austin, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 9a around Austin has about 14 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.
The actual range around Austin's last frost
02/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 01/23 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 03/14 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Austin compares
At roughly 291 frost-free days, Austin places 4,418 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within TX, it ranks 580 of 2,558.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Austin can differ from the 78768 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Austin's frost date answer different questions.