It's lovely weather in Sydney at the moment, warm and sunny, with four days above 22 expected this week. Spring has definitely sprung, my favourite time of year.
Well, technically we're still in winter. But while the standard four seasons are pretty useful, since they basically describe the cycle of temperatures and are used consistently around the world, they don't necessarily match our lived experience. For instance, in the tropics people usually talk about the dry & wet seasons, with the west season in northern Australia often broken into "monsoon buildup" and "monsoon", which have quite different weather patterns.
In Sydney, I personally tend to divide the year into about five seasons:
Pleasingly, my seasons aren't too far from the way the D'harawal people, from just south of Sydney, describe the year, although they break it into six seasons not five and use a number of other factors, like how different plants and animals change throughout the year. They also describe more parts of the year as "cold", which might be a matter of perspective.
There are a lot of different ways to look at seasons, beyond just rain and temperature. How would you break up the year? All the weather & climate data you could possibly need is available from the Bureau's website.
Well, technically we're still in winter. But while the standard four seasons are pretty useful, since they basically describe the cycle of temperatures and are used consistently around the world, they don't necessarily match our lived experience. For instance, in the tropics people usually talk about the dry & wet seasons, with the west season in northern Australia often broken into "monsoon buildup" and "monsoon", which have quite different weather patterns.
In Sydney, I personally tend to divide the year into about five seasons:
- Winter is basically a month long, in July, since it really doesn't get that cold here. Farewell, winter!
- Spring goes from about August to October. This is the sunny time of year, when the chance of rain is lowest. The mornings are crisp and clear and the weather is getting warmer, but the really hot days are uncommon. It can be quite windy, too, when the fronts come through. This season seems to be warming the fastest at the moment, with quite a lot of spring heatwaves in recent years.
- Summer goes from November to March, but I think it should be divided into two halves. In "First Summer", for lack of a better name, in November/December, the weather is still mostly fine and sunny, but the chances of really hot weather & thunderstorms are increasing.
- The second half of summer, which could be called "Wet Summer", goes January-March. This is when the weather gets really humid, when cloudy days and thunderstorms are most common, and when the average rainfall & frequency of heavy rain days takes a big step up.
- Finally, Autumn is April-June, but I might call it "East Coast Low season". Rain is still high, with June the wettest month of the year, but it's starting to get cooler. 36% of all days with more than 100 mm of rain occur during this time of year, and it's when most of the really big memorable East Coast Lows have happened.
Pleasingly, my seasons aren't too far from the way the D'harawal people, from just south of Sydney, describe the year, although they break it into six seasons not five and use a number of other factors, like how different plants and animals change throughout the year. They also describe more parts of the year as "cold", which might be a matter of perspective.
There are a lot of different ways to look at seasons, beyond just rain and temperature. How would you break up the year? All the weather & climate data you could possibly need is available from the Bureau's website.