Frost Dates: First and last frost dates for mt washington, nh

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 August 2. 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 July 7, so we don't dare plant that early. We wait a few days and by July 17 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° May 25 May 20 May 16 May 13 May 10 May 6 May 3 Apr 29 Apr 24
Last 20° Jun 6 Jun 1 May 28 May 25 May 22 May 19 May 16 May 12 May 7
Last 24° Jun 16 Jun 11 Jun 7 Jun 3 May 31 May 28 May 24 May 20 May 15
Last 28° Jun 30 Jun 25 Jun 21 Jun 18 Jun 16 Jun 13 Jun 10 Jun 7 Jun 2
Last 32° Jul 24 Jul 17 Jul 12 Jul 8 Jul 4 Jun 30 Jun 25 Jun 20 Jun 13
Last 36° Aug 2 Jul 28 Jul 24 Jul 21 Jul 17 Jul 14 Jul 11 Jul 7 Jul 1

How to read these charts for the fall
As your growing season comes to an end, the nightly temperatures for mt washington, nh 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 August 8, and by September 3 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 August 13.
  2. There is a 50% chance of being hit by a 32° frost starting around August 24
  3. You have a 80% chance of seeing 32° by September 3
  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° Sep 24 Sep 27 Sep 30 Oct 3 Oct 5 Oct 7 Oct 9 Oct 12 Oct 16
First 20° Sep 12 Sep 16 Sep 20 Sep 23 Sep 25 Sep 28 Oct 1 Oct 4 Oct 8
First 24° Sep 2 Sep 6 Sep 9 Sep 12 Sep 14 Sep 17 Sep 19 Sep 23 Sep 27
First 28° Aug 23 Aug 27 Aug 31 Sep 2 Sep 5 Sep 8 Sep 10 Sep 14 Sep 18
First 32° Aug 8 Aug 13 Aug 17 Aug 21 Aug 24 Aug 27 Aug 30 Sep 3 Sep 9
First 36° Aug 1 Aug 4 Aug 6 Aug 8 Aug 10 Aug 12 Aug 14 Aug 16 Aug 20

Data is provided by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.