Winter weather
Grand Rapids hits first freeze Nov. 13, 30 days late and 2nd latest on record
By Ryan Hall, Y'all Weather Desk · Published · Updated
Written by our automated news desk from National Weather Service data.
What's new: Removed old graphics, added a first-freeze dates table, and tightened the opening.
Key points
- Where: Grand Rapids, Michigan, measured at Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
- When: Friday, Nov. 13, the first day this season with a low of 32°F or colder.
- What: A low of exactly 32°F. That counts as a freeze, but not a hard freeze (28°F or colder).
- How late: 30 days after the normal date of Oct. 14, and second latest in 132 falls.
- What it means: The first freeze arrived about a month later than normal.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, recorded its first freeze of the fall on Friday, Nov. 13, with a low of 32°F at Gerald R. Ford International Airport. That is 30 days later than the normal date of Oct. 14, and the second latest first freeze in 132 falls on record.
Only one fall waited longer: 1918, when the first freeze came on Nov. 14. Daily numbers like this one are preliminary until NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information reviews them.
How late this freeze really was
We count a freeze as the first day since July 1 with a low of 32°F or colder at the city's official climate station. The normal date is the median first freeze from the 1991-2020 seasons, which we worked out from the same station record. It is not an official NOAA normal.
By that measure, Grand Rapids normally sees its first freeze around Oct. 14. This year it held off until Nov. 13. The city missed the all-time latest mark by a single day.
For contrast, last season's first freeze came on Oct. 25, 2025. The earliest on record was Sep. 3, 1946, so this city's history spans more than two months from earliest to latest. This fall landed at the very late end of that range. The side-by-side dates are in the table with this post.
Not a hard freeze
The low only just reached the freezing line. At 32°F, it met our freeze definition but fell short of the hard-freeze line of 28°F or colder. Friday's reading did not reach the 28°F hard-freeze threshold.
A late start across our tracker
Grand Rapids is not the only city on our first-freeze tracker that has had to wait. As of Nov. 13, 14 of the 58 big cities we follow had logged a freeze. That means most of the list had not yet hit 32°F this season.
Bottom line
Grand Rapids waited until Friday, Nov. 13, for its first freeze, 30 days behind schedule and one day short of the latest on record. The 32°F low met the freeze threshold but not the hard-freeze threshold.
| What | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|
| This season | Nov 13 | 32°F |
| Normal (1991-2020 median) | Oct 14 | |
| Earliest on record | Sep 3, 1946 | |
| Latest on record | Nov 14, 1918 | |
| Last season | Oct 25, 2025 |
First freeze tracker: every big city's date
Explained: What a Freeze Warning means, and how it differs from a Frost Advisory
More on First freeze 2026
Places in this story: Grand Rapids, MI
Sources
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, threaded station records (GRRthr), daily minimum temperature, through Nov 13, 2026, NOAA Regional Climate Centers (ACIS)