Carbonado, WA 98481 Frost Dates
98481, near Carbonado, WA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/11, about 226 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/30, roughly 202 days after the last spring frost.
Carbonado sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Carbonado's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Carbonado against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 202 frost-free days, Carbonado places 17,311 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WA, it ranks 312 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98481: the frost range, on how to read the range around Carbonado's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Carbonado can differ from the 98481 normal.