Microseason 67 of 72 · December 1–5
Darkness settles before dinner
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
Darkness settles before dinner
Sunset before 4:30 PM — the shortest days of the year.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Darkness Falls Before Dinner
Winter solstice approaches; sunset moves to mid-afternoon and darkness claims most of the day. Evergreens dominate the landscape; deciduous forest becomes cathedral-like with shadow.
- PNWPacific Northwest
Darkness settles early
Sunset now before 4:30 PM. Gloom thickens. Streams running full from November's rains. Marine layer extends inland to the Cascades.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
December arrives, storms accelerate
Winter storm season opens; atmospheric rivers queue behind each other; rainfall totals accelerate toward seasonal average.
- MWMountain West
Deep darkness settles over the ranges
December's daylight contracts sharply. The sun dips lower each noon, and the high country enters its longest dark period with snow-bound peaks and frozen valleys.
- MPPlains Continental
Deep winter takes hold
Snow lies thick across the plains. Shortest day draws near. Rivers begin to freeze solid; Mississippi and Missouri grind to ice.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Desert deepens into winter
Daytime highs settle in the upper 50s to low 60s. The hard desert—saguaro, creosote, palo verde—enters true dormancy. Silence deepens.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Deep dry season opens
December brings peak dryness. Vegetation stress reaches annual high. Trade winds settle into their strongest, most reliable pattern. Winter holidays bring islanders and visitors.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Solstice darkness at full strength
Deepest twilight. Sun barely crests the horizon at noon if at all. Barrow in complete darkness. Aurora at zenith of visibility.
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.