FrostDateCheck

Salinas, CA 93908 Frost Dates

Frost dates for Salinas, CA, ZIP 93908

Zone 9b

The last spring frost here typically falls around 02/04, about 160 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 12/06, about 311 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 Salinas, not a forecast for this year.

What to do before the first frost

Zone 9b around Salinas has about 14 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 03/11 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 12/25 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.

How Salinas compares

At roughly 311 frost-free days, Salinas places 3,524 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,464 of 2,555.

Learn more

zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9b and Salinas's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Salinas's dates instead of trusting one.