Frost Dates: First and last frost dates for garden city, tx
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 May 1. 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 April 3, so we don't dare plant that early. We wait a few days and by April 14 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° | Mar 5 | Feb 23 | Feb 15 | Feb 8 | Feb 2 | Jan 27 | Jan 21 | Jan 13 | Jan 2 |
Last 20° | Mar 23 | Mar 13 | Mar 6 | Feb 27 | Feb 22 | Feb 16 | Feb 10 | Feb 3 | Jan 24 |
Last 24° | Apr 1 | Mar 24 | Mar 19 | Mar 14 | Mar 9 | Mar 4 | Feb 27 | Feb 21 | Feb 13 |
Last 28° | Apr 7 | Apr 2 | Mar 30 | Mar 27 | Mar 24 | Mar 22 | Mar 19 | Mar 15 | Mar 10 |
Last 32° | Apr 18 | Apr 13 | Apr 9 | Apr 6 | Apr 3 | Mar 31 | Mar 28 | Mar 25 | Mar 20 |
Last 36° | May 1 | Apr 25 | Apr 21 | Apr 17 | Apr 14 | Apr 11 | Apr 8 | Apr 3 | Mar 29 |
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 October 22.
- There is a 50% chance of being hit by a 32° frost starting around November 3
- You have a 80% chance of seeing 32° by November 16
- 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° | Nov 19 | Nov 29 | Dec 7 | Dec 14 | Dec 20 | Dec 26 | Jan 2 | Jan 11 | Jan 23 |
First 20° | Nov 12 | Nov 21 | Nov 27 | Dec 2 | Dec 7 | Dec 12 | Dec 17 | Dec 23 | Jan 1 |
First 24° | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 14 | Nov 18 | Nov 22 | Nov 26 | Nov 30 | Dec 5 | Dec 11 |
First 28° | Oct 26 | Nov 1 | Nov 5 | Nov 8 | Nov 12 | Nov 15 | Nov 18 | Nov 23 | Nov 28 |
First 32° | Oct 15 | Oct 22 | Oct 27 | Oct 31 | Nov 3 | Nov 7 | Nov 11 | Nov 16 | Nov 23 |
First 36° | Oct 4 | Oct 11 | Oct 15 | Oct 20 | Oct 23 | Oct 27 | Oct 31 | Nov 5 | Nov 11 |
Data is provided by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.