Paradise, CA 96061 Frost Dates
96061, near Paradise, CA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/28, roughly 273 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/28, roughly 124 days after the last spring frost.
Paradise 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
Paradise's growing season runs out in roughly 4 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/28 isn't a guarantee
05/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Paradise against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 124 frost-free days, Paradise places 38,827 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 2,485 of 2,555.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 96061: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Paradise's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Paradise's dates instead of trusting one.