Microseason 16 of 72 · March 16–20
Woodcocks spiral at dusk
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
Woodcocks spiral at dusk
American woodcocks perform sky-dancing displays in meadows.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Swallowtails emerge from winter silk
Swallowtail butterflies wake across the Piedmont as dogwood buds swell. The first warm days coax them skyward.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Alder Catkins Dust the Air
Red alder catkins release pollen clouds; first swallowtail butterflies emerge from overwintering chrysalises in the mild mid-March fog.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Monarch chrysalis emergence
Monarch caterpillars pupate, hanging from milkweed and hollyleaf, while overwintering adults begin spring migration northward from Pismo Beach.
- MWMountain West
Mountain bluebirds return to the summits
Mountain bluebirds cascade back into high country and foothills after winter. Pasqueflowers push through south-facing slopes.
- MPPlains Continental
Sandhill Cranes Rise from the Platte
Half a million sandhill cranes surge northward through Nebraska's river valleys, their bugling calls filling the dawn sky.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Caterpillars turn to wings
Desert lepidoptera begin emergence; palo verde gold-tips deepen as spring warmth peaks.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Wings emerge from green
Caterpillars spin chrysalises in the dense tropical understory, watched by anole lizards and hummingbirds.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Eagles skim the thinning ice
Bald eagles return to open water; river ice begins to crack under spring pressure as temperatures briefly rise.
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.