Gallup, NM 86505 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Gallup, NM, ZIP 86505
Around 05/15 is the usual last spring frost, about 260 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/10, about 147 frost-free days later.
Gallup sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6b around Gallup has about 6 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Gallup's last frost
05/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/30 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 06/01 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Gallup compares
At roughly 147 frost-free days, Gallup places 35,860 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NM, it ranks 297 of 427.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Gallup can differ from the 86505 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Gallup's frost date answer different questions.