Shelton, WA 98546 Frost Dates
98546, near Shelton, WA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/24, about 208 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/15, roughly 235 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 Shelton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Shelton's growing season runs out in roughly 11 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/24 isn't a guarantee
03/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shelton against the rest of the dataset
Shelton's growing season runs about 235 days, ranking 9,576 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WA, it ranks 165 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98546: the frost range, on how to read the range around Shelton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Shelton can differ from the 98546 normal.