Gig Harbor, WA 98329 Frost Dates
Gig Harbor, WA: when does the frost end?
Around 03/11 is the usual last spring frost, about 195 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/21, roughly 254 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 Gig Harbor, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 12 weeks until Gig Harbor's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/11 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 04/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Gig Harbor against the rest of the dataset
About 254 days separate Gig Harbor's last and first frost, putting it 7,009 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WA, it ranks 58 of 700.
Learn more
Before leaning on 98329's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Gig Harbor can differ from the 98329 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8b and Gig Harbor's frost date answer different questions.