FrostDateCheck

Socorro, NM 87831 Frost Dates

87831, near Socorro, NM: the frost window

Zone 7b

The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/12, about 227 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 196 days after the last spring frost.

Socorro 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

Socorro's growing season runs out in roughly 9 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 Socorro's last frost

04/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/29 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Socorro against the rest of the dataset

About 196 days separate Socorro's last and first frost, putting it 18,948 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 129 of 427.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 87831: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Socorro's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Socorro's dates instead of trusting one.