Albuquerque, NM 87104 Frost Dates
87104, near Albuquerque, NM: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 179 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Albuquerque in Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
Albuquerque's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Albuquerque against the rest of the dataset
About 179 days separate Albuquerque's last and first frost, putting it 25,131 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 196 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 87104: the frost range, on how to read the range around Albuquerque's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Albuquerque can differ from the 87104 normal.