FrostDateCheck

Grand Rapids, MI 49525 Frost Dates

49525, near Grand Rapids, MI: the frost window

Zone 6a

The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/06, about 251 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.

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

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.

Grand Rapids against the rest of the dataset

Grand Rapids's growing season runs about 157 days, ranking 33,196 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MI, it ranks 687 of 1,153.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 49525: the frost range, on how to read the range around Grand Rapids's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Grand Rapids can differ from the 49525 normal.