Queen Creek, AZ 85143 Frost Dates
85143, near Queen Creek, AZ: the frost window
Around 02/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 157 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/11, roughly 315 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Queen Creek in Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
Queen Creek's growing season runs out in roughly 15 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
02/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 02/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Queen Creek against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 315 frost-free days, Queen Creek places 3,409 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AZ, it ranks 212 of 506.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 85143: local microclimates, on what one yard in Queen Creek can differ from the 85143 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Queen Creek's frost date answer different questions.