Climate change: Australian summers 'twice as long as winters'

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Climate change: Australian summers 'twice as long as winters'

1 March 2020

Australia's summers have become twice as long as its winters amid increasing temperatures driven by climate change, according to new weather data analysis.

The Australia Institute found that summer across most of the country over the past 20 years was about a month longer than in the mid-20th century, while winters had become shorter.

Between 2014 and 2018, summers were found to be about 50% longer.

The findings followed Australia's warmest and driest year on record.

"Our findings are not a projection of what we may see in the future. Its happening right now," the Australia Institute's Richie Merzian said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51697803

[caraher]

1. I hate the headline and the "finding"

Sorry, climate change doesn't redefine seasons, which are defined by the tilt of Earth's axis of rotation and the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Yes, it takes more words to say what is really happening. Maybe doesn't make for a snappy headline. But it doesn't help the cause of scientific literacy.

[Eugene]

2. As the Australian definition of seasons is based on calendar months rather than solstice/equinox,

they are comparing practical effects to the arbitrarily set boundaries. In lower latitudes, seasons are defined differently still.