Yelm, WA 98504 Frost Dates
98504, near Yelm, WA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/29, about 244 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Yelm in Zone 8b (15 to 20°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Yelm's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Yelm's last frost
04/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Yelm against the rest of the dataset
Yelm's growing season runs about 169 days, ranking 29,368 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WA, it ranks 516 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98504: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Yelm's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Yelm's dates instead of trusting one.