FrostDateCheck

Howard City, MI 49322 Frost Dates

Howard City, MI: when does the frost end?

Zone 5b

Around 05/18 is the usual last spring frost, about 263 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/28, roughly 133 days after the last spring frost.

Howard City sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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

With roughly 4 weeks until Howard City'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

05/18 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 06/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Howard City against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 133 frost-free days, Howard City places 38,066 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MI, it ranks 996 of 1,153.

Learn more

Before leaning on 49322's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Howard City's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Howard City can differ from the 49322 normal.