Wind, Rain, Cloud and Sun

Understanding the climate of the Mount Macedon region in a state and global context.

Wind and rain and cloud and sun, just four elements that have so much power over the Earth and our lives. Wild weather, torrential downpours, oppressive heat, we get them all, and they’re increasing in number and extremity.

Then there’s the tiny incremental changes in the story of the seasons we fleetingly notice but can’t quite put together to make a cohesive picture.

Let’s bring the image into focus.

Let’s improve our understanding of climate - how it is, how it's been and where it's heading.

In this session with Dr Linden Ashcroft, a climate scientist and gifted science communicator from the University of Melbourne, we'll look at the broad picture of our weather - the climate trends and the character of the seasons, the patterns of the atmosphere and the increasing extremes.

And we’ll look at the micro level - the way clouds congregate and wind moves around a mountain, the way storm cells build and ridges create lee sides.

Dr Ashcroft is also keen to hear our observations of the local weather patterns and climate, and to have a wide ranging discussion about this thing we all have in common.

Together we’ll develop a greater understanding of the weather, climate and microclimates of Mount Macedon and Macedon, including winds, rainfall, temperature, weather patterns, seasonal variations and the predictability, or not, of extreme events.

About Linden Ashcroft:

Linden Ashcroft is a climate scientist and science communicator at the University of Melbourne. She has worked as a climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, and regularly gives presentations on climate science, science communication and historical climatology, as well as media interviews for national and international television and radio.

She teaches undergraduate weather and climate science within the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and postgraduate science communication with the Unimelb Science Communication program.

Her current research explores past climates of Australia using historical documents and weather observations, so the past can help us prepare for the future.

She is a Science and Technology Australia Superstar of STEM, a program that aims to smash society's gender assumptions about scientists. Linden communicates science regularly on community radio, edits a peer-reviewed journal on scientific data, and her writing was selected for the 2019 Best Australian Science Writing Anthology.