Portola, CA 96129 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Portola, CA, ZIP 96129
The last spring frost here typically falls around 06/11, about 287 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 09/10, about 91 frost-free days later.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Portola, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6b around Portola has about 2 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
Why 06/11 isn't a guarantee
06/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 05/25 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 07/02 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Portola compares
At roughly 91 frost-free days, Portola places 39,901 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within CA, it ranks 2,535 of 2,555.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Portola's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Portola's dates instead of trusting one.