Shelton, WA 98560 Frost Dates
98560, near Shelton, WA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 183 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Shelton 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
Shelton's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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 Shelton's last frost
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shelton against the rest of the dataset
Shelton's growing season runs about 183 days, ranking 23,808 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WA, it ranks 424 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98560: 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 98560 normal.