Fort Bragg, CA 95420 Frost Dates
95420, near Fort Bragg, CA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/02, about 186 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/01, roughly 272 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Fort Bragg 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
Fort Bragg'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 03/02 isn't a guarantee
03/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fort Bragg against the rest of the dataset
Fort Bragg's growing season runs about 272 days, ranking 5,375 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CA, it ranks 1,863 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 95420: local microclimates, on what one yard in Fort Bragg can differ from the 95420 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Fort Bragg's frost date answer different questions.