Federal Way, WA 98023 Frost Dates
Federal Way, WA: when does the frost end?
Around 03/08 is the usual last spring frost, about 192 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/14, roughly 250 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 Federal Way, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 11 weeks until Federal Way's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Federal Way's last frost
03/08 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Federal Way against the rest of the dataset
About 250 days separate Federal Way's last and first frost, putting it 7,421 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WA, it ranks 85 of 700.
Learn more
Before leaning on 98023's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Federal Way can differ from the 98023 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8b and Federal Way's frost date answer different questions.