Last and first frost dates in Derry

When is the last frost in Derry?

The last frost in Derry usually comes around 23 March: that is the median of 2016–2025, so in about half of those years the last night at or below 0 °C came later. Hardy crops start before it and frost-tender ones only after it: in the table below arugula can go into open ground from 2 March, while corn waits until 11 May. The first autumn frost follows around 21 November, about 243 days later: harvest or cover frost-tender crops before then.

When to sow and plant

Planting out: a week after the last frost once the soil is warm enough for the crop; frost-hardy crops three weeks before it; an unheated greenhouse three weeks earlier. Seedlings are sown so they are ready on that day. Each window starts on the Greenly calendar date and ends on the last day that still leaves the crop’s days to harvest (from its card) before the average first autumn frost, plus six weeks of picking for crops harvested over weeks (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins, watermelons, beans) — our rule; earlier in the window is safer.

When the soil warms up in Derry

The day the top 7 cm of soil first averages each temperature over a week, median of 2016–2025 (ERA5 via Open-Meteo). The soil reaches 10 °C 29 days after the last spring frost and 15 °C 76 days after it.

Frost dates near Derry

Of the nearest cities on our list, the last spring frost ends earliest in Dundalk (20 March) and latest in Belfast (18 April).

Seeds, seedlings and markets in Derry

Within 15 km of Derry OpenStreetMap lists 1 garden centre and 1 farm shop (collected 28 October 2026).

• Culmore Farm Shop — farm shop
  Culmore Road, Culmore · 7 km

• Where to buy seeds and seedlings in Derry
• Selling your own harvest in the United Kingdom

Places: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Weather in Derry by month

Average weather in Derry over 2016–2025: the warmest month is July. No month averages 20 °C by day; the warmest, July, reaches 17.7 °C. No month averages below 0 °C at night; the coldest nights, in January, average 3.2 °C. About 1134 mm of rain falls in a year, on 206 days; August is the wettest month (113 mm) and April the driest (74 mm).

Average of the daily highs and lows, rain per month and days with at least 1 mm (ERA5 via Open-Meteo, the same grid cell as the frost dates).

Planted in autumn

From a month before the first autumn frost, so the roots grow before winter, to the late-planting limit on each crop’s page (about two weeks before the ground freezes, by ten years of weather).