West Branch, MI 48661 Frost Dates
West Branch, MI: when does the frost end?
Around 05/15 is the usual last spring frost, about 260 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 143 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for West Branch, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 5 weeks until West Branch's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/29 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
West Branch against the rest of the dataset
West Branch's growing season runs about 143 days, ranking 36,546 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MI, it ranks 889 of 1,153.
Learn more
Before leaning on 48661's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around West Branch's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in West Branch can differ from the 48661 normal.