Maxwell, NM 87728 Frost Dates
87728, near Maxwell, NM: the frost window
Around 05/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 262 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 135 days after the last spring frost.
Maxwell 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
Maxwell'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.
Why 05/17 isn't a guarantee
05/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Maxwell against the rest of the dataset
About 135 days separate Maxwell's last and first frost, putting it 37,922 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 352 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 87728: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Maxwell's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Maxwell's dates instead of trusting one.