Elk Grove, CA 94257 Frost Dates
94257, near Elk Grove, CA: the frost window
Around 02/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 158 days away. 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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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 3,833 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,559 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 94257: 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 94257 normal.