Las Cruces, NM 88058 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Las Cruces, NM?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/12, roughly 196 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/13, about 241 frost-free days later.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
About 11 weeks of growing season left in Las Cruces before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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
At roughly 241 frost-free days, Las Cruces places 8,506 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NM, it ranks 11 of 427.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Las Cruces can differ from the 88058 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 8b and Las Cruces's frost date answer different questions.