Shasta Lake, CA 96040 Frost Dates
96040, near Shasta Lake, CA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/29, roughly 274 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/19, roughly 113 days after the last spring frost.
Shasta Lake sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
Shasta Lake's growing season runs out in roughly 3 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
05/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shasta Lake against the rest of the dataset
Shasta Lake's growing season runs about 113 days, ranking 39,386 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CA, it ranks 2,498 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 96040: the frost range, on how to read the range around Shasta Lake's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Shasta Lake can differ from the 96040 normal.