Date/Time
Date(s) - 19 Mar 2020
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

*Yes, the Understanding Weather course will be running in 2021 – contact Jeremy for more information.

This course is all about connecting our daily lived experiences of the weather with the patterns behind them and understanding how those patterns form. This is coupled with exploring just how beautiful it is to watch the weather unfold across a day, week and year  – which you can see with the current synoptics below, care of the Windy website (a fantastic resource we’ll use during the course).

The intent for this course is that the discrete sessional learnings are coupled with self-guided work in between: basically, the more you delve into the content for yourself (with support & amongst good company), the deeper your understanding is likely to be.

Between sessions, interesting weather highlights (and the patterns generating them) will be shared to participants, via group email – these help train your eye to see the patterns flowing across the year.

For more on the course background and how it came to be, check out this interview with Jeremy, your meteorological interpreter for the course.

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Course details:

Delivered via an online platform, 6:30pm-8:30pm, Thursdays

Dates for 2021

Thurs March 18th (nigh on Equinox)

Thurs June 17th (nigh on Winter solstice)

Thurs Sept 16th (nigh on Equinox)

Thurs Dec 16th (nigh on Summer solstice)

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Bare Minimum Learning guarantee – my contract to you is that if after having attended the whole course (i.e at least the four evening sessions) that as a bare minimum you don’t feel you:

1. can identify at least three cloud types (to genus if not species – see FAQ’s) and share a bit about them/how they form
2. can describe the basics on how global weather patterns are formed 
3. can articulate the three main climate drivers for Australia and how they can affect our daily lived experience in Melbourne
4. had a good time learning*

… then I will refund your course fee 100%. Yep, the whole damn lot. AND you can keep the gift. There will be a couple of  questions asked, such as “what are your bank details?”, and “are you sure you didn’t have a good time…?”, but otherwise, that’s it. My contract to you. Why? Because if we can’t achieve at least the above together then you shouldn’t be out of pocket, and I should go find something else to do.

*this guarantee does not cover the enjoyment or otherwise regarding my inset-adjective-here jokes; they are, however, guaranteed to occur 🙂

Course topics outline

Content includes the topics below, nested in the context of connecting our lived experience to the pattens behind them and how to read them:

• global weather generation and patterns (i.e. Hadley cells and the like)
• the Coriolis Effect and why weather patterns spin different directions in different hemispheres
• ocean & land effects on weather generation, and how they differ
• El Niño & La Niña and their compatriots in Australia’s climate patterns
• how to read a synoptic chart and using other nifty weather tools
• exploring the 4-seasons-in-one-day commentary while considering how four seasons across the year doesn’t seem a very good fit for Melbourne
• Cloud types, how they form, and what they might indicate
• understanding Melbournian idiosyncrasies like: a temperature drop from 40C to 25C in 10mins on a hot February day, and the rain-sunshine-hail-sunshine experience of a wintry July afternoon

We’ll also utilise learning resources to help train your weather-eyes day to day, so you can become even more weather savvy.

So, if you’re up for a informative, fun, weather-filled year then sign up and we promise you’ll never see weather the same way again… yes, you too can become That Person in your social circle who is always yabbering on about high and low pressure systems, cloud formation and the likelihood (or not) of a hot, dry summer!

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