Gold Bar, WA 98046 Frost Dates
98046, near Gold Bar, WA: the frost window
Around 04/15 is the usual last spring frost, about 230 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/25, roughly 192 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Gold Bar, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Gold Bar's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/15 isn't a guarantee
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/25 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Gold Bar against the rest of the dataset
Gold Bar's growing season runs about 192 days, ranking 20,369 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WA, it ranks 393 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98046: local microclimates, on what one yard in Gold Bar can differ from the 98046 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Gold Bar's frost date answer different questions.