Salida, CO 81233 Frost Dates
81233, near Salida, CO: the frost window
Around 05/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 274 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/20, roughly 112 days after the last spring frost.
Salida sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Salida's growing season runs out in roughly 3 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
05/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Salida against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 112 frost-free days, Salida places 39,416 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CO, it ranks 497 of 624.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 81233: local microclimates, on what one yard in Salida can differ from the 81233 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Salida's frost date answer different questions.