Irrigation timing by location

When to Winterize Sprinklers — by City, State and USDA Zone

There is no national date for this. The deadline is your own first hard freeze, and it moves by more than two months across the country — a system in Fargo is blown out while one in Atlanta is still running. Find your city, state or zone below for the window, then work the checklist. Places warm enough that a pipe-cracking freeze is not a realistic risk are deliberately not listed: if yours is missing, that is usually the answer.

Not listed? Look up your ZIP code for the same answer from your nearest station.

And every window below is a long-term normal, which is the best a static page can do. YardLedger watches the live forecast for your own address instead, and warns you when a hard freeze is actually coming. Get my freeze reminder

By USDA hardiness zone

The coarsest tier — a zone measures winter cold rather than frost dates, so use it as a starting point and go a level deeper if your city or state is listed below.

Zone 3very cold northern wintersAugust 18 – September 3 Zone 4cold northern wintersAugust 28 – September 13 Zone 5cold wintersSeptember 7–23 Zone 6cool wintersSeptember 22 – October 8 Zone 7mild transition-zone wintersOctober 4–20 Zone 8mild Southern wintersOctober 18 – November 3

When is your first freeze?

A zone is the coarsest tier on this page. Enter your ZIP for the NOAA freeze normals at the station nearest you — the deadline your winterization hangs off — free, no signup required.

Your ZIP code

Free · no signup · NOAA 1991–2020 normals

By state

Anchored to the earliest-freezing station in each state, not averaged across them — a statewide deadline has to clear the coldest county. States with no realistic pipe-cracking freeze are deliberately absent.

By city

63 metros with a curated NOAA station — the most precise answer on the site short of entering your own ZIP.

By USDA hardiness zone

When is your first freeze?

By state

By city

An average date, or the actual forecast