About This Project
Melbourne Seasons is a data-driven exploration of Melbourne's annual climate cycle. Rather than imposing a predetermined number of seasons, it lets the data speak: 45 years of daily weather observations are analysed with statistical changepoint detection to discover where the year's natural boundaries fall.
The result is an interactive tool for understanding Melbourne's climate in terms of daily lived experience - when to adjust the heating, what to wear to work, when the evening light lasts long enough for a walk, and when to plan a weekend away.
Acknowledgement of Country
Melbourne sits on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, who have lived in and cared for this country for tens of thousands of years. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
First Peoples Seasonal Calendars
Melbourne's First Peoples - the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong - have read the turning of the year on this Country for tens of thousands of years, through living seasonal calendars held in relationship with the land, its plants, animals, waterways and skies. That knowledge is theirs.
This project is not a calendar of that kind, and it isn't a replacement for one. It comes from a completely different trigger: instruments and numbers - decades of temperature and rainfall readings run through statistics - rather than lived observation of Country. It exists to answer small, practical questions, like when heating season really begins or when the coats can go away. Nothing more.
To learn about the seasons of this place as understood by its Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and the Bureau of Meteorology's Indigenous Weather Knowledge project are the places to go.
Credits
Weather data provided by the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API, serving ERA5 reanalysis data produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). ERA5 combines global weather station observations with atmospheric modelling to produce a consistent historical record. NASA POWER (MERRA-2 reanalysis) is available as a fallback data source.
Built by Lotlsoft in Melbourne.