Latest news with #WeatherPatterns
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Australian city considers adopting aboriginal calendar
The Lord Mayor of one of Australia's biggest cities wants to switch to a six-season Indigenous calendar, claiming it is more accurate than the four-season version. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said adding two extra seasons would be more representative of the city's weather than the current Northern Hemisphere model. 'In the Wurundjeri calendar, there were six seasons in the year. It was a wet summer and a dry summer,' Mr Reece (pictured) told 3AW. 'A wet winter and a dry winter. And when you think about it, it makes sense. But we have gone and superimposed the four seasons essentially from Northern Europe here in Melbourne. They don't really match up with the weather patterns that we experience over the 12 months.' The idea was brought up at the Melbourne 2050 Summit, hosted in May, where around 1,000 people discussed the city's future. Mr Reece, who was only elected Lord Mayor in 2024, said it was logical to have a system created by Indigenous people. 'This is one of those things where a bit of First Nations knowledge appears to make a bit more sense,' he said. 'Literally, wattle season starts and that week you look around Melbourne and all of the wattle trees have turned fluorescent yellow, and it's beautiful. Aboriginal people who lived here for tens of thousands of years, in their calendar, had six seasons here in Melbourne and when you actually look at the calendar and the seasons you actually realise hey that actually does line up.' Many poked fun at the Lord Mayor's proposal. 'We should all be able to adopt and identify with as many seasons, months of the year and days of the week as we feel like. Just like our pronouns,' one wrote online. 'Melbourne has really lost the plot. This is complete nonsense,' another said. The idea of changing the number of seasons in Australia isn't new. In 2013, Dr Tim Entwisle, at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, told National Geographic Magazine that 'four seasons just don't make sense'. 'When Europeans arrived in Australia, they brought a lot of cultural baggage, including a seasonal system from the temperate Northern Hemisphere,' he said. He said spring should begin a month early when native plants flower and last just two months instead of the usual three. It would then be followed by two-month-long 'sprummer', a four-month-long summer starting in December, before autumn sets in.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Bizarre plan to make Aussie city switch to the Aboriginal calendar and have SIX seasons: 'It makes sense'
The Lord Mayor of one of Australia's biggest cities wants to switch to a six-season Indigenous calendar, claiming it is more accurate than the four-season version. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said adding two extra seasons would be more representative of the city's weather than the current Northern European model. 'In the Wurundjeri calendar, there were six seasons in the year. It was a wet summer and a dry summer,' Mr Reece told 3AW. 'A wet winter and a dry winter. And when you think about it, it makes sense. 'But we have gone and superimposed the four seasons essentially from Northern Europe here in Melbourne. 'They don't really match up with the weather patterns that we experience over the 12 months.' The idea was brought up at the Melbourne 2050 Summit, hosted in May, where around 1,000 people discussed the city's future. Mr Reece, who was only elected Lord Mayor in 2024, said it was logical to have a system created by Indigenous people. 'This is one of those things where a bit of First Nations knowledge appears to make a bit more sense,' he said. 'Literally, wattle season starts and that week you look around Melbourne and all of the wattle trees have turned fluorescent yellow, and it's beautiful. 'Aboriginal people who lived here for tens of thousands of years, in their calendar, had six seasons here in Melbourne and when you actually look at the calendar and the seasons you actually realise hey that actually does line up.' Many Aussies poked fun at the Lord Mayor's proposal. 'We should all be able to adopt and identify with as many seasons, months of the year and days of the week as we feel like. Just like our pronouns,' one wrote online. 'Melbourne has really lost the plot. This is complete nonsense,' another said. The idea of changing the number of seasons in Australia isn't new. In 2013, Dr Tim Entwisle, at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, told National Geographic Magazine that 'four seasons just don't make sense'. 'When Europeans arrived in Australia, they brought a lot of cultural baggage, including a seasonal system from the temperate Northern Hemisphere,' he said. Australia's weather is very different to Northern Europe's, with some regions experiencing high rainfall for several months of the year, followed by long, dry periods. Dr Entwisle developed his own five-season model for Australia's central east. He said spring should begin a month early when native plants flower and last just two months instead of the usual three. It would then be followed by two-month-long 'sprummer', a four-month-long summer starting in December, before autumn sets in. He also agreed that indigenous calendars did a much better job at reflecting Australia's climate than the inherited European model.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Tornado count creeps higher, record already set
The spring severe weather season spilled into the month of June in Missouri and Arkansas, with more tornadoes added to this year's tornado count. The preliminary number in Missouri stands at 115. This is second in the nation! And this is a new yearly record for Missouri, topping 106 tornadoes in 2006. In Arkansas, the count stands at 54. The record year was 1999 with 107 tornadoes. Texas leads the nation at 136, but this shouldn't be a surprise given its size relative to other states. Tornado concentrations this year have been outside of the more traditional tornado hotspots like Tornado Alley, which runs from the Dakotas south to Texas, and Dixie Alley, which runs from Louisiana to Georgia north into Kentucky. This year's tornadoes have focused from Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas east into Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky. Why? Well, this year, the timing and intensity of storm systems early in the season led to big outbreaks in the same spots. Remember the windstorms back in March. The wind was driven by deep areas of low pressure that moved through the region. That wind energy helps drive severe weather as well if there's enough instability and thunderstorms develop. The pattern remained consistently active through April and the middle of May. This also contributed to big rain totals across the region, with nearly two feet of rainfall falling in Springfield from April through May. Looking ahead, it appears we're transitioning to more of a summer pattern as the jet stream, or storm-organizing winds, shift further north. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
