Microseason 48 of 72 · August 26–31
Monarchs stage for flight
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
Monarchs stage for flight
Monarch butterflies congregate in goldenrod, fueling for migration.
- SESoutheast Subtropical
Monarchs gather strength
Monarch butterflies stage at milkweed reserves, their wings darkening with the season's turn as August yields to fall.
- PNWPacific Northwest
August snap arrives
The wet pattern's vanguard reaches the coast. A cool, moisture-laden wind from the northwest brings the smell of rain on duff and the first serious dampness.
- CACalifornia Mediterranean
Monarch staging begins
Monarch populations concentrate on milkweed west of the Sierra Nevada before long migration south.
- MWMountain West
Summer insects thin as autumn wind rises
Late August grasshoppers and cicadas diminish; cooler nights slow metabolism across the high desert.
- MPPlains Continental
Monarchs gather on prairie
Millions of monarchs congregate on milkweed and nectar sources across the plains, building fat reserves for the flight to Mexico. The prairie turns alive with orange wings.
- SWSouthwest Desert
Heat begins to relent
Overnight lows dip into the 60s; daytime maximums fall below 110°F.
- TRTropical / Sub-Tropical
Hurricane season intensifies
Named storms track through the Caribbean basin in earnest; the coast watches forecasts as early systems strengthen.
- AKAlaska Subarctic
Bears sated, swans depart
Waterfowl begin exodus southward; grizzly bears fatten urgently on salmon and berries before den season.
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.