Hate to break this to you, Kawaiineko gardener, while there is a technical last and first frost date for Boyne City and the rest of northern Michigan, these are just averages, and ... well, as we all know, there are always outliers. Frost can and does happen every month in your part of Michigan. My uncle lives about an hour south of you near Cadillac, in a place called Tustin, and my sister lives just outside of Manistee. Both of them have had hard freezes in mid to late June and again in early September, and both have reported frost even in July and August, albeit light ones that didn't really hurt anything. It happens. Last year was especially challenging up there, with late, hard freezes in May and hard frosts in June. My uncle lost his garden twice to frosts, first around Memorial Day, and then again about 3 weeks later after he had replanted. Both of them said it was really hard to find transplants at the local greenhouses because everyone got wiped out and had to do it all over again at least one time, some people twice. The year that my sister moved up there for good, 1993, they also had 4 inches of snow on August 28th, although it melted away by 10:00 the next morning. We had it really cold, wet, and windy the same day, with a high around 48 and a low around 42, but no snowflakes, thank goodness. And, it turned around and got up to like 93 the next week. Michigan weather is just plain WIERD. I hope this year will be better. Even down here near Detroit it was COLD, COLD, COLD all summer. July had several nights where the thermometer in my backyard hovered around 38 degrees, just above the point frost could begin to form.

I focus on the 32F, Bonnie, but it becomes the "town closest," or to the hill above the town, to the neighborhood, to out front/under the tree . . . The frost will form on the roof of the vehicle in the driveway but there will be none on the lawn on the other side of the fence - with the same blue sky above. We can say that the dandelion, or any plant, is simply responding to what has been happening in its immediate environment. Of course, that is not a 100% indication of what "will happen" in its environment. But, what can be valued in the phenological signs are the immediateness in space and time of plant responses. About 30 days ago, something happened which set another something in motion for the plant. Given certain conditions, another so many days will pass and something else will occur. I suspect that some of these environmental prompts are no more than a few weeks in the past. The plant's internal processes are set on a course that show results in a fairly short time. The Weather Service's measurements cover a century, or so. Averaging indicates frost, or near frost, or hard frost. This year's data hasn't yet been recorded. One of the criticisms of the WS is that, often, even this decade's data hasn't been factored in. Nevertheless, we are coming down to the greatest influence on spring warmth of all: the sun and the angle of the sunlight on our environment. The calendar is our indicator of that but I cannot ignore, the dandelion. Steve linked below are observations made over the previous decade by a community group in Minnesota. it is truly confined to place. i assume that the "first dandelion" is a recording of the first dandelion bloom, not the appearance of seed. Here is a link that might be useful: Signs of Spring: Maplewood, Minnesota

Don't know where you live in Albuquerque but I live in the close-in NE Heights zone 7 & exactly 5200 ft. elevation. For some strange reason my little area often has temps. (cold) more like the Valley. I saw where the latest last freeze in Spring in Albuquerque was May 27, 1917-18 & earliest last freeze in Spring was March 15, 2001. We start our seed under grow lights in Feb. & transplanted them to the garden this year the first week in May or so. I know a late freeze of ? 29 degrees (forgot to record the date!) this year got all our cherry, peach,plums, apricots & most of the apples this spring.

This came up in another thread recently, but it's important to understand the relationship between dew point and freezing. If the air temperature is above freezing, but the dew point is below freezing, wind CAN cause water to freeze, AND kill frost sensitive plants. As long as the dew point is above freezing, you really have nothing to worry about. The temperature is always above the dew point. The dew point is closer to the temperature if the humidity is high. There are a zillion online weather stations, and most of them will read off dew point (which is a function of temperature and humidity). Just go online and find one nearby. To sum up, air temperatures above freezing CAN kill frost sensitive plants, if there is wind. So if the temperature is low but above freezing, checking the dew point might be smart to preserve frost sensitive plants. Last night, my temperature went down to 37F, and the dew point was 33F. So my tomatoes and squash were safe. Temps close to freezing, dew point well below that (low humidity) and wind are a recipe for problems.