Fairbanks, AK 99712 Frost Dates
99712, near Fairbanks, AK: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/12, about 257 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/16, roughly 124 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 3b (-35 to -30°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 Fairbanks, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Fairbanks's growing season runs out in roughly 3 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/12 isn't a guarantee
05/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fairbanks against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 124 frost-free days, Fairbanks places 38,823 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AK, it ranks 95 of 269.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 99712: local microclimates, on what one yard in Fairbanks can differ from the 99712 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 3b and Fairbanks's frost date answer different questions.