Gaylord, MI 49734 Frost Dates
49734, near Gaylord, MI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/22, roughly 267 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/30, roughly 130 days after the last spring frost.
Gaylord sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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
Gaylord's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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
05/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/02 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.
Gaylord against the rest of the dataset
Gaylord's growing season runs about 130 days, ranking 38,370 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MI, it ranks 1,028 of 1,153.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 49734: local microclimates, on what one yard in Gaylord can differ from the 49734 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Gaylord's frost date answer different questions.