Albuquerque, NM 87117 Frost Dates
87117, near Albuquerque, NM: the frost window
Around 04/06 is the usual last spring frost, about 221 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/03, roughly 208 days after the last spring frost.
Albuquerque sits in USDA Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
Albuquerque's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/06 isn't a guarantee
04/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Albuquerque against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 208 frost-free days, Albuquerque places 15,483 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NM, it ranks 97 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 87117: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Albuquerque's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Albuquerque's dates instead of trusting one.