Microseason 4 of 72 · January 16–20
Pheasants begin to call
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
Pheasants begin to call
Ring-necked pheasants call from weedy lots and parks.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Cardinal dawn calls grow bolder
Northern cardinals sing more frequently as January wanes; their red silhouettes brighten frosted mornings.
- PNWPacific Northwest
The Crows Begin
Raven and crow vocalizations intensify. Territorial songs drift through fog-filled valleys. The birds know spring is coming before the thermometer shows it.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
The green pulse quickens
Hillsides visibly green with new grass growth. Live oak catkins release pollen. Lupine and poppies begin flowering in the wettest microsites.
- MWMountain West
Grouse call from the transition zone
Blue and dusky grouse begin vocalizing in mixed conifer forests; their drumming carries far in cold dense air.
- MPPlains Continental
Ring-necked pheasants call from cover
Male pheasants begin territorial calling from dormant prairie, crowing against the wind.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Quail begin their territorial chorus
Gambel's quail calls intensifying at dawn—rapid chi-ca-go series. Daytime highs push toward 75°F. Nights still cool near 38°F.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Hibiscus opens in January sun
Mid-January warmth—red hibiscus and bougainvillea burst into full flower. Trade winds gentle the afternoons. Mangrove nesting season begins.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Gyrfalcons scan the white landscape
Arctic predators hunt intensely across frozen terrain as starvation becomes the dominant winter pressure.
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.