Microseason 30 of 72 · May 26–31
Strawberries ripen in the sun
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
Strawberries ripen in the sun
Greenmarket strawberries arrive — the season's sweetest signal.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Frog choruses rise from every wetland
Bullfrog, green tree frog, and cricket frog choruses reach peak volume. Swamps roar through the night.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Safflower Days—Late May Blooms
Roses open along trails and wild margins; rhododendrons and azaleas flame in gardens and open slopes. Mountain mahogany and manzanita flower in dry foothills. Madrona bark begins peeling, revealing thin sapwood.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Dry season begins; tule fog in valleys
Dryness settles in. Coast redwood fog drip sustains inland only through shadow. Central Valley tule fog mornings persist. Heat approaching 100°F inland.
- MWMountain West
Summer settles into the high country
Alpine frogs sing in melt ponds as summer officially arrives. Monsoon moisture dominates southern reaches. Pikas and marmots feed intensely.
- MPPlains Continental
Frogs Begin Their Nightly Chorus
Bullfrogs, leopard frogs, and spring peepers fill warm evenings with deafening songs; breeding pools writhe with tadpoles.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Voices rise in monsoon dark
Frogs and toads sing nightly; rainfall patterns settle into rhythm.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Frogs sing the summer in
Tree frogs and coqui voices rise nightly—a chorus that signals wet-season peak and summer's humid onset. Hurricane season begins June 1st.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Summer settles in fully
Midnight sun dominates; true darkness gone until late August. All salmon runs now strong. Berry plants flower; tundra ponds team with waterfowl broods.
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.