Vilas, CO 81087 Frost Dates
81087, near Vilas, CO: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 166 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Vilas, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Vilas's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Vilas against the rest of the dataset
About 166 days separate Vilas's last and first frost, putting it 30,463 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CO, it ranks 34 of 624.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 81087: the frost range, on how to read the range around Vilas's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Vilas can differ from the 81087 normal.