Gallup, NM 86504 Frost Dates
86504, near Gallup, NM: the frost window
Around 05/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 274 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/28, roughly 121 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Gallup in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Gallup's growing season runs out in roughly 4 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
05/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Gallup against the rest of the dataset
About 121 days separate Gallup's last and first frost, putting it 38,991 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 369 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 86504: the frost range, on how to read the range around Gallup's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Gallup can differ from the 86504 normal.