Ephrata, WA 98823 Frost Dates
98823, near Ephrata, WA: the frost window
Around 04/22 is the usual last spring frost, about 237 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Ephrata, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Ephrata'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ephrata against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 175 frost-free days, Ephrata places 26,843 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WA, it ranks 471 of 700.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 98823: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ephrata can differ from the 98823 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Ephrata's frost date answer different questions.