Microseason 44 of 72 · August 6–10
Sunflowers face the morning
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
Sunflowers face the morning
Sunflowers track east in community gardens, heavy with seed.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Meteorological summer's turning page
August 6 marks unofficial start of autumn to meteorologists; August heat peaks but shortening days signal the shift.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Cool Wind Hints Return
A weak front pushes through, bringing a few cloudy hours and possibility of light rain. Air freshens noticeably; smoke clears briefly.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Autumn's first cool breath arrives
Slight shift in wind patterns brings cooler, more humid air; fire danger begins to ease almost imperceptibly.
- MWMountain West
First frost creeps to peaks
High elevations register ground frost on clear nights above 11000 feet; autumn's first chill arrives on mountain crests.
- MPPlains Continental
Autumn's edge approaches
Beginning of meteorological autumn; sunflowers face downward, heavy with ripening seeds; first cool mornings hint at the season's turn.
- SWSouthwest Desert
The long drought renews
Monsoon officially ends. Clear skies return; dew points plummet. The desert hardens again, but it carries the green from July and August. Insects thrive on summer-hatched seeds.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Autumn whispers in the trade wind shift
Subtle turn: days shorten. Afternoon heat plateaus. Trade winds pick up. Tropical plants sense the photocycle — berry production accelerates.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Termination dust on the peaks
First snow dusts high mountain summits; early-autumn storms bring fresh snow above treeline while valleys remain green.
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.