Rainier, WA 98576 Frost Dates
Rainier, WA: when does the frost end?
Around 04/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 244 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
Rainier 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
With roughly 7 weeks until Rainier's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Rainier'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.
Rainier against the rest of the dataset
Rainier's growing season runs about 169 days, ranking 29,463 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WA, it ranks 527 of 700.
Learn more
Before leaning on 98576's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Rainier can differ from the 98576 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8b and Rainier's frost date answer different questions.