What is a microseason?

A microseason is a five-day window of the solar year named after a small natural event — first peach blossoms, longest shadows, the rotting grass becoming fireflies. Weather Story uses seventy-two of them as the editorial backbone for 'what season is it, really?' on every city page.

What happens during December 26–31?

December 26–31 is the December microseason 72 of 72. The phenological reading varies by climate region. In a representative Northeast Continental setting: The old year closes as the new one waits, still and dark.

Does this microseason describe weather in North America?

Yes. Every microseason has been read for nine North American climate regions: Northeast Continental, Southeast Subtropical, Pacific Northwest, California Mediterranean, Mountain West, Plains Continental, Southwest Desert, Tropical Sub-Tropical, and Alaska Subarctic. The same calendar window looks different in each region; the page above shows all nine readings side-by-side.

Microseason 72 of 72 · December 26–31

The year turns in silence

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
The year turns in silence
The old year closes as the new one waits, still and dark.
SESoutheast Subtropical
The Year Turns in Silence
The year wanes in stillness and dormancy. Live oak and Spanish moss drape the bare landscape. Streams flow clear and cold. Winter holds the Southeast in quiet anticipation of spring's distant approach.
PNWPacific Northwest
Year's end in silence
Grey and still. Last week of the year—ponds glassy, streams running clear, forests quiet except for occasional raven calls.
CACalifornia Mediterranean
Year's end in wind and rain
New atmospheric rivers arrive; year closes with drenching rains and wind; mule deer seek shelter in oak and chaparral dense cover.
MWMountain West
The year closes in silence
Deep winter stillness. Mule deer in scattered herds, their antlers shed. Snow settles. The landscape is monochromatic, cold, and patient — waiting for spring.
MPPlains Continental
The year turns in silence
Final days of the year: frozen prairie lies silent. White-tailed and mule deer move through snow. New Year's Eve under stars.
SWSouthwest Desert
Year's end in silence
The old year fades. Desert holds steady: creosote eternal, saguaro patient, mesquite waiting. No sound but wind and distant raven calls.
TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Year's end in tropical stillness
Deep winter continues. Dry season absolute. Trade winds establish their steadiest pattern. Year turns toward a new solar cycle and hurricane season's distant future.
AKAlaska Subarctic
Year's end in frozen silence
The year closes in deep winter. Days marginally longer but imperceptible. Interior temperature remains -30 to -40°F. Aurora nightly.

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.

Same week, nine climates