Spring has sprung in Melbourne—not that you'd notice. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria has just had an unusually mild and dry winter:
On account of the persistence of high pressure systems, most of Victoria had below average rainfall…
Across Victoria minimum temperatures were generally well below normal… By contrast, maximum temperatures were slightly above normal…
The average maximum temperature in Melbourne was 15.3 degrees, slightly above normal (14.3 degrees)…
Melbourneís rainfall for the season totalled to 94.6 mm, well below the normal of 148.7 mm…
So if you didn't commute by bike through this of all winters, where the bloody hell were you?
While the low rainfall is a serious concern for our water supplies, you've got to take the positives where you can. And from memory I only unrolled the rain jacket twice in the last three months.
As for those crisp, clear winter mornings—glorious!
Trundling home last night at about 7pm, the clock on the silo told me it was 20°C and I found myself wondering, where are all the fair-weather cyclists? They've just gone and missed weeks and weeks of excellent Melbourne cycling weather!
Oh well, I guess they'll be back soon…
[Photos by appaloosa and listsanddiagrams]
Comments
Pisser! I just lashed out a purchased a lovely Sugoi jacket. Maybe I'll need it for those thundery summer arvo commutes homewards?
On the water saving front, we've been fixing all the taps in our house and planning to install water tanks off the roof to water the garden. So do your bit to save water, save 36053 and grow your own veggies, as they're probably going to be more expensive this summer.
We're also considering growing bananas too, as last summers watermelon & sweet potato experiment worked nicely. Melboring becoming sub-tropical due to global warming? Your guess is as good as mine!
It's been a wonderful winter, although perhaps not if you're a farmer. Was riding up in the country on the weekend and it was quite hot. Summer is delightful ,but it also means daylight savings and the bike racks at work fill up and the cycle tracks become clogged with all the people who were too weather-shy to be out during winter with their dogs and their walkmen and their .... aaaaaggggghhhhhh!
I was kind of hoping that this entry would lead to Murphy's Law kicking-in and bring on a rainy, catchment-filling spring. And it nearly worked this morning: a faint trickle of drizzle had me unfolding the rain jacket for the third time. Alas, it was not to last…