Microseason 46 of 72 · August 16–20
Crickets pulse through warm nights
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
Crickets pulse through warm nights
Field crickets pulse steadily — chirp rate reflects temperature.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Dog-day cicadas rise
Annual cicadas pulse in wave after wave, their drone a heatwave chorus as August humidity holds the Piedmont fast.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Marine layer deepens
Morning fog now lingers through midday, hugging the lowlands. The air smells of salt and damp fir needles as pressure systems shift.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Evening cicada chorus
Cicadas drone through August heat as chaparral bakes golden. Fire danger peaks.
- MWMountain West
Monsoon clouds gather over the peaks
Afternoon thunderstorms build daily over high ridges, lightning fracturing dry alpine air as moisture surges north from the Gulf.
- MPPlains Continental
Late summer wind through tallgrass
Cicadas pulse in the heat as monarch caterpillars strip milkweed leaves. Afternoon thunderstorms build daily, carrying the smell of prairie dust.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Cicada chorus deepens
Mesquite and palo verde throb with insect song as late summer heat peaks.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Cicadas hum through the heat
Cicadas chorus in the evening heat as afternoon thunderstorms begin their daily assault on the coast.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Salmon peaks, shadows lengthen
Sockeye and coho runs crest in rivers; summer light noticeably shorter as days contract toward fall equinox.
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.