Chico, CA 95926 Frost Dates
95926, near Chico, CA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/07, roughly 163 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/18, roughly 313 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 Chico, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Chico's growing season runs out in roughly 16 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
02/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chico against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 313 frost-free days, Chico places 3,435 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 1,430 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 95926: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9b and Chico's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Chico's dates instead of trusting one.