Irvine, CA 92812 Frost Dates
92812, 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.
Irvine 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
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.
Why 01/05 isn't a guarantee
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
At roughly 365 frost-free days, Irvine places 275 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 70 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 92812: 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 92812 normal.