Given the recent weather, it‘s probably not hard to convince you fall is getting warmer in Michigan. Let’s look at exactly how much warmer by looking at the first frost and first freeze dates in fall.
In our ever-changing climate, the most definitive climate trend for Michigan and the Great Lakes region is a warmer fall.
The really good visual on a warmer fall is how many days later is the first frost and first freeze.
Here’s a great, easy to use tech tool that shows us the change in days per decade for our first frost and freeze.
The summary is most of Michigan is experiencing the first frost and freeze three to four days later per decade. If you are a gardener and used to a first frost in late September back in the 1980s, it is now about 12 days later.
Before I give you the interactive link, here are the basic still images showing the trend by county.
I use 35 degrees as the frosting temperature. We find that usually fits pretty good with when you see white on the grass. In the map below the darkest orange-brown color represents a three to four days later per decade for the first 35 degree temperature. Most of Michigan has a two to three days later trend. Washtenaw and Livingston Counties have a one to two day trend. Berrien County has no trend. Remember- this is per decade. Many of us have our first frost two weeks later than back in the 1980s.
The first freeze, which is exactly 32 degrees, is also on a similar later trend of later each decade. The average trend is a day or two per decade. Alpena, in the darkest orange-brown has the largest trend of a later 32 degree temperature at four days per decade. This means the “Sunrise Side” is experiencing your first freeze 16 days later than back in the 1980s.
Here is the link to the interactive tool. Toggle which data you want, whether it’s first frost, first freeze, last frost or freeze, or growing season days. Then hover over your area and get an exact number of days per decade.
Gardeners- don’t be afraid to get aggressive with a garden plant you see growing in northern Indiana or northern Ohio. We have their weather now.
Stories by Mark Torregrossa
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