Microseason 35 of 72 · June 21–25
Solstice — the sun stands still
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
Solstice — the sun stands still
Summer solstice — longest day, highest arc across the sky.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
The longest day turns toward shadow
Solstice marks the sun's pivot; days now imperceptibly shorten, though heat peaks and will climb higher still.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Summer Solstice Stillness
The sun at its northernmost extreme. Nights are shortest; dawn comes before 5 a.m. Clear skies hold. Air warms noticeably after weeks of cool mornings.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Longest daylight, driest air
Solstice peak brings maximum solar exposure; relative humidity crashes, grasses are tinder-dry.
- MWMountain West
Long light holds the peaks
Summer solstice; dawn breaks before 5 AM, dusk lingers past 9 PM at high elevation, extending daylight across alpine tundra.
- MPPlains Continental
Solstice—sun at zenith
Summer solstice marks maximum daylight; intense solar energy drives rapid corn growth and daily thunderstorm development across the plains.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Haboob rises from the basin
First major dust storms arrive. A wall of dust sweeps across the desert mid-afternoon, silhouetting cholla and saguaro. Temperature plummets 20 degrees in minutes.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
The sun reaches its zenith turn
Solstice arrives. Overhead sun climbs to 85°. Mid-day shade becomes salvation. Afternoon storms gather with ritual precision by 3 PM.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Wildflowers peak across the land
Fireweed, monkshood, columbine, and geranium blanket tundra and forest margins in a brilliant subarctic bloom.
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.