Bakersfield, CA 93308 Frost Dates
Bakersfield, CA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 01/17, roughly 142 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/15, roughly 334 days after the last spring frost.
Bakersfield sits in USDA Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 16 weeks until Bakersfield's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 01/17 isn't a guarantee
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 2,758 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,249 of 2,555.
Learn more
Before leaning on 93308's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Bakersfield can differ from the 93308 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9b and Bakersfield's frost date answer different questions.