Hotchkiss, CO 81420 Frost Dates
Hotchkiss, CO: when does the frost end?
Around 05/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 248 days away. 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
About 159 days separate Hotchkiss's last and first frost, putting it 32,706 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CO, it ranks 125 of 624.
Learn more
Before leaning on 81420's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Hotchkiss's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Hotchkiss's dates instead of trusting one.