Etna, CA 95568 Frost Dates
95568, near Etna, CA: the frost window
Around 03/12 is the usual last spring frost, about 196 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/26, roughly 262 days after the last spring frost.
Etna sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Etna'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.
Why 03/12 isn't a guarantee
03/12 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 04/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Etna against the rest of the dataset
Etna's growing season runs about 262 days, ranking 6,243 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CA, it ranks 2,032 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 95568: local microclimates, on what one yard in Etna can differ from the 95568 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Etna's frost date answer different questions.