FrostDateCheck

Dolores, CO 81327 Frost Dates

Dolores, CO: when does the frost end?

Zone 6b

The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/15, about 260 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/08, roughly 147 days after the last spring frost.

Dolores sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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

With roughly 6 weeks until Dolores's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

How much risk comes with planting early here

05/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Dolores against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 147 frost-free days, Dolores places 35,943 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CO, it ranks 348 of 624.

Learn more

Before leaning on 81327's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Dolores can differ from the 81327 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Dolores's frost date answer different questions.