Santa Barbara, CA 93103 Frost Dates
Santa Barbara, CA: when does the frost end?
Around 01/13 is the usual last spring frost, about 138 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 01/06, roughly 365 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 10b (35 to 40°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 Santa Barbara, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 19 weeks until Santa Barbara's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 01/13 isn't a guarantee
01/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Santa Barbara against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 365 frost-free days, Santa Barbara places 599 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 269 of 2,555.
Learn more
Before leaning on 93103's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Santa Barbara's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Santa Barbara can differ from the 93103 normal.