Microseason 19 of 72 · April 1–5
Cherry blossoms drift like snow
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
Cherry blossoms drift like snow
Yoshino cherry petals fall on the first wind after peak bloom.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Thunder announces the wet season
April's first afternoon thunderstorms roll across the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. Distant thunder becomes the season's signature sound.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Thunder Rolls Down the Valleys
Spring storms bring distant thunder and heavy rain; atmospheric rivers wane but one last surge clips the coast, raising rivers and feeding the forest canopy.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Spring rain feeds the seedlings
Late spring showers green the Central Valley and coastal plains. Annual grasses race toward seed. Migrant warblers fuel on emerging insects.
- MWMountain West
Thunderstorms rumble over granite peaks
Afternoon thunderstorms ignite daily above the highest ridges. Lightning sketches across the granite as snowmelt swells creeks.
- MPPlains Continental
Thunder Voices Wake the Prairie
Lightning and thunder rumble across darkening afternoons as severe weather season intensifies; hail and derecho risk rises.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Pre-monsoon heat begins
Days intensify past 95°F; wildflower bloom fades as drought deepens.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Thunder rolls across the sea
Afternoon convective storms build daily—the wet season begins. Lightning flashes offshore; the smell of rain precedes each downpour.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Breakup thunder rolls unseen
River ice fractures under pressure of meltwater; cracks sound like distant cannon. Nenana Ice Classic begins its watch.
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.