Midland, MI 48642 Frost Dates
48642, near Midland, MI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/29, roughly 244 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 167 days after the last spring frost.
Midland 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
Midland'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
04/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/16 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Midland against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 167 frost-free days, Midland places 29,864 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MI, it ranks 357 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 48642: local microclimates, on what one yard in Midland can differ from the 48642 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Midland's frost date answer different questions.