Ellinger, TX 78938 Frost Dates
78938, near Ellinger, TX: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/04, roughly 188 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/25, roughly 267 days after the last spring frost.
Ellinger 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.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Ellinger's growing season runs out in roughly 13 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ellinger against the rest of the dataset
About 267 days separate Ellinger's last and first frost, putting it 5,892 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within TX, it ranks 1,036 of 2,558.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 78938: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Ellinger's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Ellinger's dates instead of trusting one.