FrostDateCheck

Sacramento, CA 95826 Frost Dates

Sacramento, CA: when does the frost end?

Zone 9b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 01/12, roughly 137 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/16, roughly 341 days after the last spring frost.

Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 Sacramento, not a forecast for this year.

Stretching the season past the first frost

With roughly 16 weeks until Sacramento's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

Why 01/12 isn't a guarantee

01/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Sacramento against the rest of the dataset

About 341 days separate Sacramento's last and first frost, putting it 2,574 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CA, it ranks 1,132 of 2,555.

Learn more

Before leaning on 95826's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 9b and Sacramento's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Sacramento's dates instead of trusting one.