Estancia, NM 87016 Frost Dates
87016, near Estancia, NM: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/18, roughly 263 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 135 days after the last spring frost.
Estancia sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Estancia's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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
05/18 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 06/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Estancia against the rest of the dataset
Estancia's growing season runs about 135 days, ranking 37,886 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NM, it ranks 350 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 87016: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Estancia's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Estancia's dates instead of trusting one.