Melbourne is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria and the second-most populous city in Australia, after Sydney (although the most populous by contiguous urban area).
Its name generally refers to a 9,993 km2 (3,858 sq mi) metropolitan area known as Greater Melbourne comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local municipalities, although the name is also used specifically for the local municipality of City of Melbourne based around its central business area.
Melbourne has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) with warm summers and cool winters. Melbourne is well known for its changeable weather conditions, mainly due to it being located on the boundary of hot inland areas and the cool southern ocean.
This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause strong cold fronts to form. These cold fronts can be responsible for varied forms of severe weather from gales to thunderstorms and hail, large temperature drops and heavy rain.
Winters, while exceptionally dry by south central Victorian standards, are nonetheless drizzly and overcast. The lack of winter rainfall is owed to Melbourne’s rain shadowed location between the Otway and Macedon Ranges, which block much of the rainfall arriving from the north and west.
