Ruidoso Downs, NM 88348 Frost Dates
88348, near Ruidoso Downs, NM: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 161 days after the last spring frost.
Ruidoso Downs 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
Ruidoso Downs's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ruidoso Downs against the rest of the dataset
Ruidoso Downs's growing season runs about 161 days, ranking 32,054 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NM, it ranks 242 of 427.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 88348: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Ruidoso Downs's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Ruidoso Downs's dates instead of trusting one.