Traverse City, MI 49684 Frost Dates
Traverse City, MI: when does the frost end?
Around 05/09 is the usual last spring frost, about 254 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 156 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Traverse City in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Traverse 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
05/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/26 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.
Traverse City against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 156 frost-free days, Traverse City places 33,542 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MI, it ranks 736 of 1,153.
Learn more
Before leaning on 49684's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Traverse City's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Traverse City can differ from the 49684 normal.