Hotchkiss, CO 81419 Frost Dates
Hotchkiss, CO: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 159 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Hotchkiss in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Hotchkiss's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Hotchkiss's last frost
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hotchkiss against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 159 frost-free days, Hotchkiss places 32,705 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CO, it ranks 124 of 624.
Learn more
Before leaning on 81419's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Hotchkiss can differ from the 81419 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Hotchkiss's frost date answer different questions.