Fort Collins, CO 80526 Frost Dates
80526, near Fort Collins, CO: the frost window
Around 05/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 247 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Fort Collins, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Fort Collins's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/02 isn't a guarantee
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fort Collins against the rest of the dataset
Fort Collins's growing season runs about 157 days, ranking 33,198 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CO, it ranks 177 of 624.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 80526: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Fort Collins's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Fort Collins's dates instead of trusting one.