Elk Grove, CA 94240 Frost Dates
94240, near Elk Grove, CA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/02, roughly 158 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/02, roughly 301 days after the last spring frost.
Elk Grove sits in USDA Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
Elk Grove's growing season runs out in roughly 14 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 02/02 isn't a guarantee
02/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elk Grove against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 301 frost-free days, Elk Grove places 3,823 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,549 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 94240: the frost range, on how to read the range around Elk Grove's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Elk Grove can differ from the 94240 normal.