Merced, CA 95345 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Merced, CA, ZIP 95345
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/12, about 257 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/01, about 171 frost-free days later.
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 Merced, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 9a around Merced has about 9 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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/18 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 06/04 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Merced compares
At roughly 171 frost-free days, Merced places 28,574 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 2,376 of 2,555.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9a and Merced's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Merced's dates instead of trusting one.