Merrill, MI 48626 Frost Dates
48626, near Merrill, MI: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 172 days after the last spring frost.
Merrill sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Merrill'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.
The actual range around Merrill's last frost
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Merrill against the rest of the dataset
Merrill's growing season runs about 172 days, ranking 28,428 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MI, it ranks 270 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 48626: the frost range, on how to read the range around Merrill's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Merrill can differ from the 48626 normal.