FrostDateCheck

Poway, CA 92176 Frost Dates

Poway, CA: when does the frost end?

Zone 10b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/04, roughly 188 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/04, roughly 270 days after the last spring frost.

Poway sits in USDA Zone 10b (35 to 40°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 14 weeks until Poway's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

How much risk comes with planting early here

03/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/29 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Poway against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 270 frost-free days, Poway places 5,542 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,962 of 2,555.

Learn more

Before leaning on 92176's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Poway can differ from the 92176 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 10b and Poway's frost date answer different questions.