Tucson, AZ 85706 Frost Dates
Tucson, AZ: when does the frost end?
Around 02/05 is the usual last spring frost, about 161 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/09, roughly 307 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 Tucson, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 15 weeks until Tucson's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 02/05 isn't a guarantee
02/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Tucson against the rest of the dataset
About 307 days separate Tucson's last and first frost, putting it 3,669 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AZ, it ranks 234 of 506.
Learn more
Before leaning on 85706's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Tucson's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Tucson can differ from the 85706 normal.