アポストロフィの使い方、part 3

I've been talking about apostrophes for a few posts now. Here are the two previous posts:

http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2010/03/part-1.html
http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2010/03/part-2.html

Last time, I said you should only use apostrophes for animals and people, but there's one other case that's common: you can use an apostrophe to talk about a noun related to a time.

• Today's blooming cherry trees are really beautiful, even at night.
• I'm not sure if they are more beautiful than last year's, though.
• I hope that tomorrow's forecasted rain doesn't spoil the blossoms.

• 打ち壊す (うちこわす) (v5s) to destroy; to spoil; to crush; to wreck; (definition from Edict)
  
• 損なう (そこなう) (suf,v5u) to harm; to hurt; to injure; to damage; to fail in doing; (P); <- similar to "spoil"
  

However, using the apostrophe for times which are shorter than an hour is less common or strange.

× It started raining earlier tonight, but the last minute's rain has been lighter. <- not exactly wrong, but...
◯ It started raining earlier tonight, but the rain in the last minute has been lighter. <- this sentence is more natural, I think.

I'll look at some more common mistakes with apostrophes next time. In the meantime, enjoy this year's cherry blossoms!