Vail, CO 81657 Frost Dates
Vail, CO: when does the frost end?
Around 06/21 is the usual last spring frost, about 297 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/07, roughly 77 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Vail, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 1 week until Vail'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
06/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 06/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 07/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Vail against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 77 frost-free days, Vail places 40,070 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CO, it ranks 573 of 624.
Learn more
Before leaning on 81657's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Vail can differ from the 81657 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Vail's frost date answer different questions.