Bellingham, WA 98262 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Bellingham, WA, ZIP 98262
Around 04/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 216 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/02, about 216 frost-free days later.
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 Bellingham, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 8b around Bellingham has about 9 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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/11 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/24 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Bellingham compares
At roughly 216 frost-free days, Bellingham places 13,701 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WA, it ranks 250 of 700.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Bellingham can differ from the 98262 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8b and Bellingham's frost date answer different questions.