Irvine, CA 92799 Frost Dates
92799, near Irvine, CA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 01/05, roughly 130 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/25, roughly 365 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Irvine in Zone 10b (35 to 40°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Irvine's growing season runs out in roughly 17 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
01/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Irvine against the rest of the dataset
About 365 days separate Irvine's last and first frost, putting it 272 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CA, it ranks 67 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 92799: the frost range, on how to read the range around Irvine's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Irvine can differ from the 92799 normal.