Chowchilla, CA 93601 Frost Dates
Chowchilla, CA: when does the frost end?
Around 03/25 is the usual last spring frost, about 209 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/03, roughly 253 days after the last spring frost.
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 Chowchilla, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 14 weeks until Chowchilla's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chowchilla against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 253 frost-free days, Chowchilla places 7,095 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 2,079 of 2,555.
Learn more
Before leaning on 93601's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Chowchilla's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Chowchilla's dates instead of trusting one.