Microseason 63 of 72 · November 11–15
Juncos arrive from the north
A five-day window of the year, read through nine North American climate regions.
Same week, nine climates
A microseason names a five-day window of the solar year. What that window actually looks like on the ground depends on where you are. Below, the same calendar window read through each of nine North American climate regions.
- NENortheast Continental
Juncos arrive from the north
Dark-eyed juncos appear at feeders — snowbirds have landed.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Earth Stiffens Underfoot
First hard frosts grip the Piedmont and mountains. Soil freezes overnight in the highlands; swamp water begins to skin over in the mornings.
- PNWPacific Northwest
First frost finds the lowlands
Sub-freezing nights arrive in Seattle, Portland basins. Grass silver with rime. Thermometer bottoms out near 28°F. Streams begin to slow.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
First rain greens the chaparral
November rains trigger germination across golden hills; annual grasses and wildflower seeds awaken after months of dormancy.
- MWMountain West
Earth begins to harden
Soil freezes from the surface down. Moisture in shallow ground turns to ice, and the living world quiets as the earth enters dormancy.
- MPPlains Continental
Frost locks the prairie
Ground freezes solid across the plains. Coyote and fox tracks etch the crystallized earth. Water on prairie potholes begins to ice over.
- SWSouthwest Desert
First frost traces ridges
High desert elevations frost. Palo verde and ironwood leaves glisten with ice at dawn. Groundwater freezes in exposed pockets.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Migratory arrivals from the north
Winter migrants—warblers, herons from temperate zones—begin settling into tropical wetlands. Days grow noticeably shorter.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Darkness takes the meridian
Daylight falls to 8 hours interior, less further north. Twilight is the dominant light source. Aurora nights grow frequent.
About the 72-microseason calendar
A microseason is a five-day window of the solar year — long enough to notice something change, short enough that the change is specific. The year holds seventy-two of them, six per month, ordered by what the natural world is doing rather than what the clock says. Almanac calendars like this are an old American habit, kept by farmers, gardeners, and birders for centuries; Weather Story collects them into a single reference.
Each microseason is read through nine North American climate regions. The phenological events that mark a five-day window vary with ecology — the strawberries that open in the Northeast might coincide with the first magnolias dropping in the Southeast and the salmonberry blossoms unfurling in the Pacific Northwest. Same week, nine ecologies, nine readings.