Bakersfield, CA 93306 Frost Dates
93306, near Bakersfield, CA: the frost window
Around 01/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 142 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/15, roughly 334 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Bakersfield in Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
Bakersfield'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.
The actual range around Bakersfield's last frost
01/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Bakersfield against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 334 frost-free days, Bakersfield places 2,756 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,247 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 93306: local microclimates, on what one yard in Bakersfield can differ from the 93306 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Bakersfield's frost date answer different questions.