Imperial, CA 92251 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Imperial, CA?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 01/04, roughly 129 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 12/26, about 360 frost-free days later.
Zone 10a (30 to 35°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 Imperial, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 17 weeks of growing season left in Imperial before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Imperial's last frost
01/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/07 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 12/13 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Imperial compares
At roughly 360 frost-free days, Imperial places 2,083 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 961 of 2,555.
Learn more
the frost range covers how to read the range around Imperial's dates instead of trusting one. local microclimates covers what one yard in Imperial can differ from the 92251 normal.