Charlevoix, MI 49720 Frost Dates
49720, near Charlevoix, MI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/01, about 246 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Charlevoix, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Charlevoix's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Charlevoix's last frost
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Charlevoix against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 178 frost-free days, Charlevoix places 25,746 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MI, it ranks 108 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 49720: local microclimates, on what one yard in Charlevoix can differ from the 49720 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Charlevoix's frost date answer different questions.