Bakersfield, CA 93309 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Bakersfield, CA, ZIP 93309
Around 01/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 142 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 12/15, about 334 frost-free days later.
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 Bakersfield, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 9b around Bakersfield has about 16 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
Why 01/17 isn't a guarantee
01/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/18 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 12/23 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Bakersfield compares
At roughly 334 frost-free days, Bakersfield places 2,759 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,250 of 2,555.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9b and Bakersfield's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Bakersfield's dates instead of trusting one.