Frost Dates: First and last frost dates for Greenville, AL

How to read these charts for the spring
As the growing season approaches, the days get longer, the weather begins to warm up, and the nights start being less cold. You're still getting frost, but the chance of nightly frosts gets less and less with each passing day. Eventually, the frost stops, and this is when your tender plants are fully safe. So, how do you plan for this? The probabilities on this page help you assess your risk of frost on any given day.

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.

In the Spring
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

How to read these charts for the fall
As your growing season comes to an end, the nightly temperatures for Greenville, AL start to go down, and therefore every day that goes by increases the chance that you'll get frost. Your risk of frost really begins around October 28, and by November 27 you're almost certain to have received at least one frost event.

The charts on this page show the probabilities of receiving a certain temperature on a certain day. Some examples that might help:

  1. You have a small 20% chance of getting 32° by November 3.
  2. There is a 50% chance of being hit by a 32° frost starting around November 15
  3. You have a 80% chance of seeing 32° by November 27
  4. Said another way, you have a 1 in 5 chance at making it to that day without a 32° night.
In the Fall
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.