Cave Creek, AZ 85085 Frost Dates
Cave Creek, AZ: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 01/08, about 133 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/25, roughly 354 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 Cave Creek, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 17 weeks until Cave Creek'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
01/08 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cave Creek against the rest of the dataset
Cave Creek's growing season runs about 354 days, ranking 2,197 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within AZ, it ranks 54 of 506.
Learn more
Before leaning on 85085's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Cave Creek can differ from the 85085 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9b and Cave Creek's frost date answer different questions.