Australia only has 2 seasons

[Telstra]

Hot and dry in summer, spring and automn.
Cold (not so cold) and wet in Winter.

In the North of Australia:
Hot & dry in summer. half spring half autumn.
Hot & wet in winter. half spring half autumn.

Thats all.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

The Ancient Greeks only knew three seasons; Spring, Summer and Winter/Storm.

 

[landers]

I Canada we have four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and, Construction.

 

[ashonfire]

Really? I'd say we have six or so seasons. Well Victoria does anyway. And none of them involve wetness.

 

[Telstra]

well Victoria has 4 seasons in 1 day.

 

[belamy]

I Canada we have four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and, Construction.

I've always known those as Freezing, Cold, Cool and Fresh.

 

[Elwood]

Hot and dry in summer, spring and automn.
Cold (not so cold) and wet in Winter.

In the North of Australia:
Hot & dry in summer. half spring half autumn.
Hot & wet in winter. half spring half autumn.

Thats all.

Obviously you did not tip the season gods enough. muhahahahahahahahahaha

 

[FabFairy]

Correction Telstra:

Down South there are the 4 season or at least more defined outline of seasons. Unlike the North that only has 2 Seasons

In Northern Australia there are really only 2 Seasons

A monsoon refers to a seasonal reversal of wind direction. In Northern Australia, south easterly trade winds characterise the dry season, and the wet or monsoon season is characterised by a north westerly monsoonal flow.


The Australian Dry Season ( April to November )
During the dry season the predominant wind direction is south easterly - the south east trade winds.

They're moderately cool and very dry in Australia's north west because they originate from the centre of the desert. This has the effect of pushing the monsoon system north into South East Asia and the Indian subcontinent.


The Indonesian Throughflow
The Indonesian throughflow runs from April to October. Water from the western Pacific Ocean flows down through the deeper gaps in the Indonesian Archipelago. Two of the main sites of throughflow are the Lombok Straights, between the islands of Bali and Lombok, and the gap between the island of Timor and Australia.
The Leeuwin current that flows down Australia's west coast is a warm tropical current that originates as an offshoot of the main throughflow that passes between Timor and Australia.
The throughflow dissipates vast amounts of heat energy from the waters of the western Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean. It has been estimated that at it's peak, throughflow transfers enough energy as heat to power a 100 watt electric lightbulb on every square metre of the Australian continent.

This vast energy transfer has the effect of lowering sea surface temperature to Australia's north, reducing the evaporation of water. This makes the air drier and so rainfall in the region to the south of the equator is greatly reduced.


The Australian Wet or Monsoon Season (November to April)
In late September / early October above the Himalayas and Nepalese plateau, a region of high air pressure forms.

This system basically remains in place from October to March. Cold dry air descends blowing out to the south.

The regional air flow changes from the Southern moist monsoonal flow of the Indian monsoon, to a cold dry flow that marks the arrival of the dry or winter season in the Northern hemisphere.

It has been noted that there is a relationship between the depth of the snow that falls in the Himalayas and the amount of rainfall received in north western Australia.

In late October the throughflow from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, to the north west of Australia, slows, stops and may even reverse at times as the Indian Ocean Counter Current flows west to east into the Timor gap and "blocks" the throughflow.

This leads to a large raft of relatively still water to the immediate north west of Australia. This body of water begins to heat under the tropical sun.

As the sea surface temperature rises, evaporation increases and moist air from this region, thought to be the source of humidity and moisture, will eventually fall during the Australian monsoon ( you only get monsoon systems where these static masses of water called warmpools form, not where the currents make the seas cool or cold ).

From late October to March the land mass from the Pilbara to Alice Springs in the red centre heats up as the suns path swings to the south with the change of seasons.

This vast area becomes extremely hot.

It takes several months for the landmass to finally reach its peak heat in December. This level is then suststained until late January or early February.
The very hot air close to the land surface rises, leaving a region of lowered air pressure ( as the air that was there has risen ), and a heat low is formed.


Heat lows only occur over large landmasses. Air flows in to fill this area of lower pressure ands help pull the monsoon south over the Australian continent.

During the wet season there are usually two or three major monsoon events. These events occur when the monsoon trough ( a low pressure trough associated with intense rainfall ) moves south over the landmass of north Western Australia.

The trough may remain over the land for periods of one day, to several weeks.

It usually overlies the continent for about seven days, during which time strong north westerly winds blow and rain falls almost constantly.
The later phases in February and March are often longer and more intense. It is then that the cumulative effect of the rains may be seen as surface water becomes evident.

This arrival of the monsoon trough occurs in intervals of about 40 days, and is thought to be connected with the arrival of the Kelvin wave - an easterly moving, globe circling, atmospheric wave, seen as a mass of increased cloud activity as it moves in from the west towards Australia.

The periods between the monsoon events are known as break phases.

 

[DaddyBadger]

Quite similiar to Australia, Wisconsin has only two seasons. Over here they are called Winter and Road Construction.

 

[Telstra]

Its so warm in Autumn. Thats why i said 2 season.

Climate change !!!

 

[pixie77]

Anyone from Adelaide? wotz weather there like?

 

[FabFairy]

I think John_W before you imply that there is only an semblance of reality you perhaps should take the time to do some research. And while the weather is varied from time to time the basic's are still in place. Southern Australia still has the 4 seasons and do follow a reasonable regular pattern of behaviour for that to occur.

Australia's temperate regions
The temperate areas of Australia are found on the south-eastern coast, reaching south from Tasmania through most of Victoria and New South Wales into the southern parts of Queensland. Temperate regions are also found in the southern most parts of South Australia and the south-western tip of Western Australia.

The weather in temperate Australia is quite changeable throughout the year, with an average temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius in the summer, and cool to cold winters with an average temperature of around 15 degrees Celsius. The summer frequently extends into periods of heat wave and drought, while the winters, while usually cold, wet and windy, are quite mild in comparison to winters in many European countries.

Snow is uncommon in temperate Australia, and unheard of in the dry and tropical regions, but along the Great Dividing Range, the mountain range that passes through New South Wales and Victoria, there are regular winter snowfalls.

Yes climate change is happening and not a thing that is working that fast but it is also the Genie in the Bottle. The first bit of hot weather and it is now climate changes fault. Victoria has had a hard summer with the weather and bushfires but it is wrong just to blame climate change. The Government needs to pull it's finger out and start to take real steps to address Climate Change and stop trying to workout ways of screwing the public for as much cash as they can get with a carbon reduction plans.

The bushfire are far easier to follow the line of government stupidity. Australian Aboriginals lived in this country for about 40,000 years before white man arrived and they managed to live off the land without hardly leaving a mark on it. And in that process the undergrowth was regularly burnt off and taken care of.

Whites have been here 220 years and we have almost stripped the place bare of nearly all forrests and the areas we have left are now being controlled it seems by friggin' Greenies dictating how to manage the land. You would think that if the Greenies cared that much about this country they would take a little time and examine it's history and set up a workable plan to keep most if not all happy.

For your information I was born and raised in Victoria and lived there for 32 years so I do know that there can be 4 seasons in day and I never questioned that. I did however question the statement that there are only 2 season. Then again some Aboriginals are of the opinion that we have 6 seasons. So work that one out.

Northern Austrlia has 2 Seasons and Southern Australia has 4 at present but in 10, 20 or 30 years time who knows what it will be.