East Grand Rapids, MI 49516 Frost Dates
49516, near East Grand Rapids, MI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/06, roughly 251 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
East Grand Rapids 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
East Grand Rapids's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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
05/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
East Grand Rapids against the rest of the dataset
East Grand Rapids's growing season runs about 157 days, ranking 33,270 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MI, it ranks 711 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 49516: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and East Grand Rapids's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around East Grand Rapids's dates instead of trusting one.