Douglas, AZ 85626 Frost Dates
85626, near Douglas, AZ: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/18, about 202 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/13, roughly 235 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°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 Douglas, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Douglas's growing season runs out in roughly 11 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
03/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Douglas against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 235 frost-free days, Douglas places 9,571 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AZ, it ranks 331 of 506.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 85626: local microclimates, on what one yard in Douglas can differ from the 85626 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Douglas's frost date answer different questions.