Chama, NM 87520 Frost Dates
87520, near Chama, NM: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 06/14, roughly 290 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/18, roughly 93 days after the last spring frost.
Chama sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 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
Chama's growing season runs out in roughly 3 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Chama's last frost
06/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 06/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/30 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chama against the rest of the dataset
Chama's growing season runs about 93 days, ranking 39,874 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NM, it ranks 416 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 87520: local microclimates, on what one yard in Chama can differ from the 87520 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Chama's frost date answer different questions.