Richmond, CA 94804 Frost Dates
94804, near Richmond, CA: the frost window
Around 01/04 is the usual last spring frost, about 129 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 01/02, roughly 365 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Richmond in Zone 10a (30 to 35°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Richmond's growing season runs out in roughly 18 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Richmond's last frost
01/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Richmond against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 365 frost-free days, Richmond places 452 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 177 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 94804: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 10a and Richmond's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Richmond's dates instead of trusting one.