WHAT about this crazy spring weather, eh?

It’s a line you hear again and again this time of year, but the thing is, big fluctuations in weather are totally normal for spring. That’s why it’s called “weather” rather than “same old boring, unchanging thing every day”.

Melbourne was 30 on Sunday. It was 16 or 17 yesterday and today. This is normal.

Canberra topped 20 degrees every day over the last fortnight. Today it will not top 8 degrees. This, too, is normal.

The ski season ended a few weeks ago in the Australian Alps yet today, up to 20 centimetres of snow has fallen in a completely normal spring storm. Here are some pics of that normal, if rather photogenic, event.

Here’s another one. Nice and normal. It’s the pub at small ski resort of Mt Baw Baw in Victoria.

Here’s one more totally normal snow shot.

Here’s the same spot yesterday. Normal, normal, normal.

A few weeks ago Perth had its hottest ever September day of 34 degres, followed by two days of miserable weather in the mid teens. That was a little extreme, but mostly normal too.

Now for some more pics of the awesome storm that rumbled and roared into Sydney yesterday afternoon.

The swirly cloud is called an Arcus Shelf cloud and it’s perfectly normal. Spectacular, but normal. For the record, an Arcus Shelf Cloud is a low horizontal cloud attached to the leading edge of a thunderstorm. Its weird shape is caused by the interplay between cool air in the downdraft of the storm and warm air rising ahead of the storm.

It’s that stuggle between warm air from the interior and and cool air from the Southern Ocean which makes spring weather so interesting. And normal.

Ladies, it’s also why you probably shouldn’t gamble on some totally flimsy frock for Melbourne Cup Day. And when when you think about it, it makes sense that spring is racing season, because the one predictable thing about horse racing is its unpredictability. Just like the weather.