Portales, NM 88130 Frost Dates
88130, near Portales, NM: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/23, about 238 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 180 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 to 5°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 Portales, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Portales's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/23 isn't a guarantee
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Portales against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 180 frost-free days, Portales places 24,813 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NM, it ranks 188 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 88130: local microclimates, on what one yard in Portales can differ from the 88130 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Portales's frost date answer different questions.