The Dalles, OR 98617 Frost Dates
98617, near The Dalles, OR: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/11, roughly 226 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/26, roughly 197 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°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 The Dalles, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
The Dalles'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/28 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
The Dalles against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 197 frost-free days, The Dalles places 18,636 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within OR, it ranks 238 of 463.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98617: the frost range, on how to read the range around The Dalles's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in The Dalles can differ from the 98617 normal.