Shafter, CA 93206 Frost Dates
Shafter, CA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/09, roughly 165 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/26, roughly 289 days after the last spring frost.
Shafter sits in USDA Zone 9a (20 to 25°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
With roughly 13 weeks until Shafter's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
02/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shafter against the rest of the dataset
Shafter's growing season runs about 289 days, ranking 4,541 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CA, it ranks 1,710 of 2,555.
Learn more
Before leaning on 93206's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Shafter can differ from the 93206 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Shafter's frost date answer different questions.