Las Cruces, NM 88005 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Las Cruces, NM, ZIP 88005
Around 03/12 is the usual last spring frost, about 196 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/13, about 241 frost-free days later.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Las Cruces, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 8a around Las Cruces has about 11 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Las Cruces's last frost
03/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/23 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/02 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Las Cruces compares
About 241 days separate Las Cruces's last and first frost, putting it 8,500 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 5 of 427.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Las Cruces can differ from the 88005 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8a and Las Cruces's frost date answer different questions.