Santa Maria, CA 93455 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Santa Maria, CA, ZIP 93455
The last spring frost here typically falls around 02/04, about 160 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 12/13, about 315 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 Santa Maria, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 9b around Santa Maria has about 15 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 02/04 isn't a guarantee
02/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/16 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 12/29 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Santa Maria compares
At roughly 315 frost-free days, Santa Maria places 3,401 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,416 of 2,555.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Santa Maria can differ from the 93455 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9b and Santa Maria's frost date answer different questions.