FrostDateCheck

Ridgecrest, CA 93522 Frost Dates

Ridgecrest, CA: when does the frost end?

Zone 8b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 01/04, roughly 129 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/22, roughly 352 days after the last spring frost.

Ridgecrest sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 17 weeks until Ridgecrest's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

The actual range around Ridgecrest's last frost

01/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Ridgecrest against the rest of the dataset

About 352 days separate Ridgecrest's last and first frost, putting it 2,278 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CA, it ranks 1,009 of 2,555.

Learn more

Before leaning on 93522's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Ridgecrest can differ from the 93522 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8b and Ridgecrest's frost date answer different questions.