Tacoma, WA 98401 Frost Dates
Tacoma, 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 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 Tacoma, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 11 weeks until Tacoma's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 03/08 isn't a guarantee
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.
Tacoma against the rest of the dataset
About 250 days separate Tacoma's last and first frost, putting it 7,411 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WA, it ranks 78 of 700.
Learn more
Before leaning on 98401's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Tacoma's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Tacoma can differ from the 98401 normal.