Ruidoso, NM 88355 Frost Dates
Ruidoso, NM: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/11, roughly 256 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/05, roughly 147 days after the last spring frost.
Ruidoso sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
With roughly 5 weeks until Ruidoso's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 05/11 isn't a guarantee
05/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ruidoso against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 147 frost-free days, Ruidoso places 35,884 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NM, it ranks 300 of 427.
Learn more
Before leaning on 88355's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Ruidoso's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Ruidoso's dates instead of trusting one.