Find your first and last frost dates

I am so glad that I'm not even listed. Ah, Paradise.

Thanks anyway, Dave.

Hap

I just uploaded my new changes and it might work better now.

One problem is that the data seems inaccurate in at least one area. The Newark, CA (San Jose) area seems to be reporting strange things. It gives a 50% chance of a spring frost on Dec 15, and a 50% chance of a fall frost on Jan 24. That seems odd to me and it is throwing my calculations all off. So, I programmed it to simply ignore those kinds of anomalies.

Another example is Phoenix, that shows the Fall date at Jan 4 but the Spring date at Dec 24. This must be an error in the NCDC data.

Anyway, the California and other warmer areas should report correctly now, for the most part.

That looks MUCH better for us! Thanks, Dave!! ^_^

LOL, http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/index.php?q=32119&submit=Go

I'm in Daytona Beach and do feel lucky. Frost can be a problem but it's a RARE one, Thank Goodness!


Dave, Thanks for all of your hard work, and for this new feature!

hmmmm UHaul just reported a huge order, from all parts of the nation, all heading to Daytona Beach, FL 32119

lol plantladylin

Just tried again, LOL!

"Well, it looks like frost isn't a problem for you in San Jose, CA 95132. Lucky you! :)

My brugs would beg to differ right now. Limp rags from last weeks 2 nights of below freezing temps. Hopefully that's it for the year though.

Phoenix, AZ 85031

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from December 13 through February 6.
Almost certainly, however, you will receive frost from January 17 through December 30.

You are almost guaranteed that you will not get frost from March 15 through November 10.

Your frost-free growing season is around 310 days.

Looks like the Jan 17 and Dec 30 maybe should be reversed? Besides that it's pretty accurate.

locakelly, yes, I mentioned the problem with Phoenix in an earlier post.

I LOVE this new feature!! Thanks, Dave!

This is outrageously cool!
I entered my French "zipcode" and got dates for somewhere in Maine that were surprisingly accurate for here!
Any chance this will be expanded beyond the US?

DG always has something new and useful!

Potagere

Potagere, I could certainly support any other non-US area, except that I don't have the data. The NCDC has done a good job collecting this information for US stations, but as far as I know, this data doesn't exist outside this country.

Not sure what NCDC is (sounds like National Centre for Disease Control!), but I wonder if MeteoFrance has something similar. They have a lot of climate info. After the first of the year I'll have to get someone to help me write a letter to ask if they can provide this info and on what basis.

I think you may need to add a lot more zip codes to the California climate zones... when I put in my zip, it's pretty accurate, but when I put in Beverly Hills, a basically frost free zone about 10 miles away (and one huge mountain range away), it still gives my area as the reference zones, and there is no way. California has a lot of diverse altitudes along with coastal and desert influences that make it really complicated. Even the Western Garden zones are highly generalized and inaccurate. Still, seems pretty good for most of the country.

Very cool feature. It didn't capture my zipcode or the codes close to me, but as more get added, this will be so very helpful!

I wouldn't look for more stations to be added. NOAA completed this work and I don't think they are planning on expanding it, at least not this decade.

Uh oh. Okay. Out here there's considerable variation in freezes between zip codes, what with the ocean, lakes, marshes, hills, mountains, etc. Guess I'd better get on the horn to NOAA.

It wouldn't hurt.

One thing I've learned (actually, I already knew this, but this experiment reinforced it) is that the west coast has such a diverse set of climates that it is a near impossibility for anybody to properly and completely map it out with any accuracy.

Environment Canada has some great tools and charts for Canadian weather, I don't know know what kind of info. you need to make this work for us though...
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/canada_e.html

To make it work, I would need a table of information showing the probability of seeing a certain temperature on a certain date. Preferably, it would contain all the information you find in the "Detailed station data" out our frost date feature here.

With that information, I could certainly extend my feature to include new countries.

That may be true . . .

It might be a cool feature but it's absolutely useless to all DG-ers who don't live in the US!

Hi Dave. The data is spot on for my zip....helps to have the LSU Ag Exp station just 10 miles away in one direction, and Carville Station 15 in the other...grin So easy to adapt that info to my yard....thank you so much for this neat, helpful feature.

Just found and tried this new feature and How Cool Dave! 5 Thumbs Up!!

http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/index.php?q=96224

My ZIP shows up as some place in Germany. It still seems pretty accurate for my area (on the west/central DMZ)

It's only available for the continental US.

But it seems to work pretty well no matter where we are....