We do tend to pride ourselves on having four seasons, but maybe that is not quite accurate. We have two main season consisting of eight months of winter and four months of summer.

In between these seasons we get a few wonderful days of spring and autumn. If the trees and plants did not tell us about the seasons we might not even know a new season had arrived!

Those eight months are cold, with white or grey skies and are generally quite miserable. We who have made Ballarat our home stoically claim we are happy with the weather. Some are and some are not.

LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON BALLARAT'S WEATHER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE

We are also blessed to be in a unique geographic position at around the 435m above sea level. This position in relation to 'the Bight' off the South Australian coast means those high level winds and clouds are forced up as they hit the land and are at their strongest in and around Ballarat. Hence the biggest investment in wind farms in Australia in our region.

Australia has droughts, Ballarat has droughts. There are good years and bad years. This year we are fortunate to have our dams full in November with quite a bit of rain still to come.

In a desperate move to find if we are getting warmer in Ballarat it was off to the Bureau of Meteorology to check the trend in maximum mean temperature over the last 110 years. All maximum temperatures for every day of the year/decade/century, averaged out. The good news is that since about 2000 the average temperatures have been going up.

That gives me hope but you could have fooled me!

The bad news is that the average maximum temperature over this whole period remains where it started at 17.4C!

Then it was on to see the trend in the average minimum temperatures. Once again good news with an upward trend from 2010. Unfortunately, the bad news is the average over 110 years is the same at about 7.1C.

All this is quite disheartening really, as my hope around global warming raising our temperatures in Ballarat over the long-term has been shattered.

This truly is utterly depressing. I have now lived in Ballarat during the 'warmer years'!! Noosa will be tempting when the temperature trend starts heading down which on past trends, unfortunately will happen.

While we might get the odd year or two a bit warmer, the longer term prognosis for Ballarat will probably be to return to the average annual maximum and minimum temperatures of 7.1C and 17.4C.

It must be said though that when the weather gives Ballarat a beautiful day it really is a great place to live and play. Fortunately for me I don't mind our weather and that is why we continue to live in Ballarat!

Nick Beale is a transport advocate

What do you think of Ballarat's weather? Let us know