Empire, MI 49664 Frost Dates
49664, near Empire, MI: the frost window
Around 05/22 is the usual last spring frost, about 267 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 140 days after the last spring frost.
Empire sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Empire'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.
Why 05/22 isn't a guarantee
05/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Empire against the rest of the dataset
About 140 days separate Empire's last and first frost, putting it 37,142 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MI, it ranks 915 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 49664: local microclimates, on what one yard in Empire can differ from the 49664 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Empire's frost date answer different questions.