Do you know the best way to find your frost dates? Asking an expert gardener that lives next door! Sadly, most of us don’t have access to one. However if you’re in the United States or Canada, you have access to the next best thing – LastFrostDate.com!
What’s a frost date?
First and last frost dates are arguably the most important dates for any gardener. The last frost date is the day in the spring when it’s statistically likely that there will not be another frost. The first frost date is the day in the fall when it’s statistically likely for temperatures to have already dropped below freezing. These dates are super important for planning your garden – figuring out when to start seeds indoors and when it will be safe to plant them outdoors. They’re also helpful for knowing how long you have in your growing season.
How to find your last frost date?
While there are plenty of tools that give last frost dates, they’re generally based on your ZIP code or city. However, cities and zip codes are big places! These tools don’t take into account microclimates and the dates can be pretty far off from what you experience in your growing space. At the same time, they only give one date (generally based on a 30% chance of frost) which isn’t the full story!
That’s where LastFrostDate.com comes in, and why it’s different.
It uses your device’s actual precise location to locate the nearest weather station. Then, it uses literally decades of data from that specific weather station and generates different probabilities of frost on different dates.
While yes, it does display a simple “Last Frost Date”, it also gives different options for low risk and high risk dates depending on how willing you are to risk frost or cover your plants. If you really want to dig into the data, there’s also a handy graph that shows different temperatures and probabilities throughout the year – all for your VERY specific location!
This comes in handy when you’re growing hardy annuals or plants that can take a bit of frost. You can browse when it’s unlikely to get colder than 24 degrees Fahrenheit; then, you can know when it’s safe to plant out your frost-hardy plants for your specific location, even though it might still dip below freezing.
What about microclimates?
In some locations, climates can look very different even if they’re only a few miles apart. In these cases your closest weather station might not be representative of temperatures where you’re growing. That’s why LastFrostDate.com lets you pick from other nearby weather stations that might be more similar to your growing area. Simply choose from the dropdown and it loads instantly!
Wrap-Up
LastFrostDate.com is a 100% free tool that’s made by the folks at Bloom Manager (the free season planning platform for flower farmers). This tool is easy-to-use and gives the most accurate and detailed frost data of any source. Give it a try today, learn more about your local frost date and be well-equipped to have an amazing growing season!
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