Climax, MI 49088 Frost Dates
49088, near Climax, MI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/30, about 245 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 170 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Climax, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Climax'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
04/30 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 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Climax against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 170 frost-free days, Climax places 29,157 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MI, it ranks 340 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 49088: local microclimates, on what one yard in Climax can differ from the 49088 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Climax's frost date answer different questions.