Gallup, NM 86508 Frost Dates
86508, near Gallup, NM: the frost window
Around 05/22 is the usual last spring frost, about 267 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/08, roughly 138 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Gallup, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Gallup's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/22 isn't a guarantee
05/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/05 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 138 days separate Gallup's last and first frost, putting it 37,353 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 327 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 86508: local microclimates, on what one yard in Gallup can differ from the 86508 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Gallup's frost date answer different questions.