New Lothrop, MI 48460 Frost Dates
48460, near New Lothrop, MI: the frost window
Around 05/05 is the usual last spring frost, about 250 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 160 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts New Lothrop in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
New Lothrop's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
New Lothrop against the rest of the dataset
About 160 days separate New Lothrop's last and first frost, putting it 32,477 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MI, it ranks 641 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 48460: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and New Lothrop's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around New Lothrop's dates instead of trusting one.