Taft, CA 93268 Frost Dates
93268, near Taft, CA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 01/24, about 149 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/17, roughly 330 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 Taft, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Taft's growing season runs out in roughly 16 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
01/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Taft against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 330 frost-free days, Taft places 3,051 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,315 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 93268: the frost range, on how to read the range around Taft's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Taft can differ from the 93268 normal.