Microseason 14 of 72 · March 6–10
Crocuses open to weak sun
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
Crocuses open to weak sun
Purple and yellow crocuses dot lawns in sheltered exposures.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Hibernators emerge to call
Cicadas and katydids, awakening from winter dormancy, begin testing their songs in warming afternoon air.
- PNWPacific Northwest
The Small Lives Stir
Pacific salamanders emerge into damp soil. Beetles, slugs, and invertebrates activate. The forest floor becomes a visible theater of awakening.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Insects wake and feed
Early-emerging insects—springtails, beetles, ants—active in warming soil. Butterfly populations growing. Redwood new growth shows lime-green. Pollen haze visible on windshields.
- MWMountain West
Hibernators break through frozen ground
Badgers, ground squirrels, and marmots emerge from burrows; prairie crocus and pasqueflower bloom on dry south slopes; pika activity increases.
- MPPlains Continental
Hibernators wake to open air
First insects emerge from their dens; prairie soil responds to sun and moisture.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Desert creatures wake fully from dormancy
Heat climbing past 95°F. Nights warming to 43-45°F. Gila monsters, desert tortoises, chuckwallas actively foraging. Insects emerging in greater numbers.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Hidden creatures awaken in dampness
Early March—wet season dominance unmistakable. Understory insects multiply explosively. Soil biota active. Red mangrove seedlings harden into saplings. Hurricane season countdown begins.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Bears emerge, creatures stir to life
Hibernating insects wake beneath bark and in soil; brown bears hunt for early shoots and cached kills.
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.