Annular modes are found on both Mars and Earth. They quantify the north-south shift of the region of strongest jet stream (the eastward wind in the midlatitudes) in time. They are important because the explain a large part of the variance in atmospheric eddies, clouds, and/or dust (depending on the planet). We find that Mars's Northern Hemisphere annular mode migrates with time from lower latitudes toward the pole every 150 days. The mechanism controlling this timing stems from different types of patterns of variability interacting with themselves and one another. Mars's annular mode relates to surface wind stress that contributes to dust lifting and the amount of dust in the atmosphere, which both exhibit the same ∼150 Mars‐day periodicity. This period, which is not related to the seasonal cycle, may contribute to the large differences in the timing of global dust events in different Mars years, which up to now was difficult to explain due to processes internal to Mars's climate alone.