South Bend, WA 98586 Frost Dates
98586, near South Bend, WA: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 177 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts South Bend in Zone 9a (20 to 25°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
South Bend'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.
Why 04/26 isn't a guarantee
04/26 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 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
South Bend against the rest of the dataset
About 177 days separate South Bend's last and first frost, putting it 26,150 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WA, it ranks 466 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98586: local microclimates, on what one yard in South Bend can differ from the 98586 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and South Bend's frost date answer different questions.