Microseason 26 of 72 · May 6–10
Tulip poplars light their candles
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
Tulip poplars light their candles
Liriodendron blooms open high in the canopy, orange and green.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Tulip poplar lights the forest crown
Tulip poplar (yellow poplar) candles blaze pale yellow-green at the forest canopy. The overstory glows.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Frogs Sing at Twilight
Red-legged frogs and Pacific tree frogs begin their loud evening choruses in wetland and pond margins. Water temperatures climb above 60°F; tadpoles develop rapidly.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Gray whales complete their migration north
Last gray whales depart San Diego and Baja—northbound journey ends in Arctic feeding grounds. Marine layer thickens; sun angles higher at noon.
- MWMountain West
Summer monsoon clouds gather southward
Southern reaches glimpse the first monsoon anvils building. Grain rains nourish the high valleys. Cutthroat trout feed aggressively.
- MPPlains Continental
Grain Rains Feed the Growing Fields
Spring rains drench the Corn Belt; young corn stands green and tall; soybean seedlings emerge into warmth.
- SWSouthwest Desert
First haboobs roll across
Walls of dust surge from north in violent afternoon squalls; light dims.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Rain falls on greening grain
Tropical agriculture leans into the rains. Grain-bearing plants and fruiting trees drink deep. Wet season peaks—rain all but guaranteed by 2 p.m.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Daylight eclipses darkness
Nearly 17 hours of daylight in Anchorage; 20+ in Fairbanks. Sun barely dips below horizon. Migrant birds feed almost continuously.
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.