FrostDateCheck

Sacramento, CA 95824 Frost Dates

95824, near Sacramento, CA: the frost window

Zone 9b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/02, roughly 158 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/02, roughly 301 days after the last spring frost.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Sacramento 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

Sacramento'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 02/02 isn't a guarantee

02/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Sacramento against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 301 frost-free days, Sacramento places 3,806 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,532 of 2,555.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 95824: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Sacramento's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Sacramento's dates instead of trusting one.