Ridgecrest, CA 93554 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Ridgecrest, CA, ZIP 93554
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/19, about 203 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/25, about 251 frost-free days later.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Ridgecrest, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 9a around Ridgecrest has about 13 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.
The actual range around Ridgecrest's last frost
03/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/20 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/13 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Ridgecrest compares
About 251 days separate Ridgecrest's last and first frost, putting it 7,288 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CA, it ranks 2,083 of 2,555.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Ridgecrest's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Ridgecrest's dates instead of trusting one.