Frost dates
Frost in South East England
What the stations recorded, 1996 to 2025
- Heathrow (25 m): 0.8 air frost days on average in April and 0 in May; 0.2 in October and 2.5 in November. April is the last spring month averaging half a frosty day or more, and November the first autumn one. About 26 frosty days a year.
- Oxford (63 m): 1.7 air frost days on average in April and 0.1 in May; 0.6 in October and 3.3 in November. April is the last spring month averaging half a frosty day or more, and October the first autumn one. About 33 frosty days a year.
- Eastbourne (7 m): 0.2 air frost days on average in April and 0 in May; 0 in October and 0.5 in November. March is the last spring month averaging half a frosty day or more, and November the first autumn one. About 14 frosty days a year.
Three stations across the South East: Heathrow on the edge of London, Oxford inland, and Eastbourne on the Sussex coast.
Your own garden
A station is one spot. Add your postcode for your area's average last and first frost.
Month by month
| Station | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 7.4 | 5.8 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 2.5 | 6.3 |
| Oxford | 9.0 | 7.0 | 3.9 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 7.8 |
| Eastbourne | 4.9 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 3.6 |
What this means for sowing and planting
Eastbourne averages almost no April frosts and none in May. Heathrow averages under one April frost and none in May. Oxford, inland at 63 m, averages twice Heathrow's April frosts and more than half a frosty day in October.
London and the coast can often plant tender crops out from late May. Inland gardens in Oxfordshire, the Chilterns and the Weald are better planning for the end of May or June.
Local things that change it
City warmth
London holds warmth overnight. Heathrow is on its edge; central London may be milder still.The Chilterns and Downs
Higher ground is colder than these stations.Eastbourne’s estimates
Some Eastbourne months in the period are marked by the Met Office as estimated.Your garden
Use the postcode look-up above for your own area.
What we can and can't tell you
Stations, not your garden
These are thermometer readings at a handful of Met Office sites, averaged over thirty years. They show how the region behaves, not what your garden will do this spring. A frosty day count isn't a last-frost date, and a ground frost can come on a night the station records none. For your area's typical last frost and how late one can come, use the postcode look-up above.
Keep going
Where this comes from
Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.
- Historic station data (monthly air frost days, 1996 to 2025), Met Office, Open Government Licence v3.0. Read 19 September 2026.
- A touch of frost: types of frost, Royal Meteorological Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Vercro reads your garden's own frost dates
Add your garden's postcode and Vercro uses its frost dates to say whether a sowing will finish in time, and its forecast to shape the jobs it shows on Today.