Merced, CA 95348 Frost Dates
95348, near Merced, CA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/03, roughly 187 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/24, roughly 263 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Merced in Zone 9b (25 to 30°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
Merced's growing season runs out in roughly 13 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 Merced's last frost
03/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Merced against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 263 frost-free days, Merced places 6,092 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 2,015 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 95348: local microclimates, on what one yard in Merced can differ from the 95348 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Merced's frost date answer different questions.