Hobbs, NM 88242 Frost Dates
88242, near Hobbs, NM: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/28, about 212 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 225 days after the last spring frost.
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 Hobbs, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Hobbs's growing season runs out in roughly 11 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/28 isn't a guarantee
03/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hobbs against the rest of the dataset
About 225 days separate Hobbs's last and first frost, putting it 11,363 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NM, it ranks 43 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 88242: the frost range, on how to read the range around Hobbs's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Hobbs can differ from the 88242 normal.