Many lifelong Michiganders will say that planting season should begin after Mother's Day each year because late season frost or freezes can ruin your garden beds.
For West Michigan, this does sometimes hold true. On average, the last freeze of the season does happen during the first week of May which would line up well with when Mother's Day is (which is the second Sunday of May every year).
The FOX 17 Weather Ready Team dug through the numbers to see how often West Michigan sees a frost or a freeze after Mother's Day and the results may surprise you.
Looking at the last 15 years, going back to 2011, Grand Rapids has seen temperatures in the 30s for overnight lows 10 out of the last 15 years after Mother's Day. This actually happened three times last year with lows in the 30s into early June as well. Other years included 2023 (3), 2021 (8), 2020 (3), 2019 (1), 2016 (1), 2015 (3), 2014 (3), 2013 (2), and 2011 (1).
In terms of frost, frost happens when the surface temperature falls to 32 degrees or lower. Since meteorological instruments do not measure temperatures at ground-level, it is possible that the measured temperature was not indicative of what happened at the surface. For this case we will use potential frost dates as times when the temperature dropped to 36 degrees or lower offering a pretty good shot that there was at least some frost on those dates. In this instance, there were 6 years that had dates after Mother's Day with potential frost out of the last 15 years.
The years that had potential frost after Mother's Day were 2021, 2020, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
For freezes, the numbers are much clearer. Since 2011, there were 3 years that had a date with at or below freezing temperatures after Mother's Day. The most recent time that happened was in 2020. Other years included 2014 and 2013.
To put it this way, 67% of the years since 2011 had temperatures in the 30s after Mother's Day, 40% saw a possible frost, and 20% saw a freeze.
While waiting to plant until after Mother's Day is in no way an official recommendation, there is some truth to it because more often than not, West Michigan does not see any more frosts or freezes after the holiday.
For 2026, time will tell. Temperatures in the days right after Mother's Day could dip into the 30s Sunday or Monday nights.
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