Frost Dates: First and last frost dates for Greenville, AL
What's a safe temperature for tender plants? When the nightly temperature falls, frost can form, even above 32°, because the air is colder high above the ground and the frost can form up there and then fall down onto your garden and do some damage, even if it's 36° on the ground. So many factors come into play, including wind, concrete, houses, trees and other structures, etc etc etc. Because of all this, you might want to consider 36° as "the danger zone".
In your average springtime, you have a 90% chance that there will be no 36° nights by April 17. In other words, you can pretty much count on being safe from frost by that day. But we want to get those tomatoes in the ground as soon as possible, right? We see that there's still an 80% chance of 36° on March 23, so we don't dare plant that early. We wait a few days and by April 2 we are at the 50/50 point. At this point, we are close and we can start watching the weather forecast. If the upcoming week's forecast doesn't show below 40°, then it's probably okay to risk planting out your plants.
Temperature | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 70% | 80% | 90% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Last 16° | Feb 16 | Feb 5 | Jan 28 | Jan 19 | Jan 10 | Dec 24 | -- | -- | -- |
Last 20° | Mar 1 | Feb 20 | Feb 13 | Feb 7 | Feb 2 | Jan 27 | Jan 20 | Jan 11 | -- |
Last 24° | Mar 10 | Mar 1 | Feb 23 | Feb 18 | Feb 13 | Feb 8 | Feb 3 | Jan 28 | Jan 19 |
Last 28° | Mar 24 | Mar 16 | Mar 11 | Mar 6 | Mar 2 | Feb 25 | Feb 21 | Feb 15 | Feb 7 |
Last 32° | Apr 9 | Apr 2 | Mar 28 | Mar 24 | Mar 20 | Mar 16 | Mar 12 | Mar 7 | Feb 28 |
Last 36° | Apr 17 | Apr 12 | Apr 8 | Apr 5 | Apr 2 | Mar 30 | Mar 27 | Mar 23 | Mar 18 |
The charts on this page show the probabilities of receiving a certain temperature on a certain day. Some examples that might help:
- You have a small 20% chance of getting 32° by November 3.
- There is a 50% chance of being hit by a 32° frost starting around November 15
- You have a 80% chance of seeing 32° by November 27
- Said another way, you have a 1 in 5 chance at making it to that day without a 32° night.
Temperature | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 70% | 80% | 90% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First 16° | Dec 19 | Jan 1 | Jan 11 | Jan 21 | Feb 1 | Feb 21 | -- | -- | -- |
First 20° | Nov 30 | Dec 12 | Dec 21 | Dec 29 | Jan 5 | Jan 13 | Jan 22 | Feb 3 | -- |
First 24° | Nov 20 | Dec 1 | Dec 9 | Dec 15 | Dec 22 | Dec 28 | Jan 4 | Jan 12 | Jan 23 |
First 28° | Nov 9 | Nov 17 | Nov 22 | Nov 27 | Dec 2 | Dec 6 | Dec 11 | Dec 16 | Dec 24 |
First 32° | Oct 28 | Nov 3 | Nov 8 | Nov 11 | Nov 15 | Nov 19 | Nov 22 | Nov 27 | Dec 3 |
First 36° | Oct 20 | Oct 25 | Oct 29 | Nov 2 | Nov 5 | Nov 8 | Nov 12 | Nov 16 | Nov 21 |
Data is provided by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.