El Centro, CA 92259 Frost Dates
Frost dates for El Centro, CA, ZIP 92259
Around 01/06 is the usual last spring frost, about 131 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 12/21, about 347 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 El Centro, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 10a around El Centro has about 16 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
How much risk comes with planting early here
01/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/06 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 12/14 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How El Centro compares
At roughly 347 frost-free days, El Centro places 2,390 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,077 of 2,555.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in El Centro can differ from the 92259 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 10a and El Centro's frost date answer different questions.