Many Melburnians would have woken up with a smile on their faces to today's date – the day we buried the nastiest winter since 1989. While it's still too early to pack away the woolies just yet, the birth of a new season has finally sprung upon us, and one with the promise of sunshine.

Melbourne recently. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

There will be things to miss about winter – mulled wine, open fireplaces, hot chips at the footy – but with its evil ways behind us, for this year, at least, we can enter the light

It's been cold. Really, really cold

Yes, winter is the cold season, but what Melbourne has experienced for the past three months has been ridiculous. The city has been blasted with icy winds, hail, downpours that could double as a natural disaster and frigid temperatures day and night. And to make matters worse, we didn't even have the mild days in between the horror to buffer the blow.

Winter whinging

There are three things guaranteed in life – death, taxes and whinging about the weather. The freezing conditions were bad enough, but then everyone had to talk about it. All. The. Time. It's all this city and its fair citizens could bring to the conversation table – complaining about the weather, begging for summer to come and making tentative plans to move to Queensland.

Wrapping up to stay warm.

The record breaking

Normally, Melbourne prides itself on breaking records – sports crowd attendance, most pointless film festival and so on. But we didn't like breaking records like we did with the weather. By June, we recorded the coldest start to winter in 65 years. And then in July, we did it again, with the coldest July day in 20 years. Oh, and again, when we woke up on July 19 to the coldest morning in 18 years.

'The Arctic Blast'

At this point, winter became a joke. An arctic blast swooped into our dear city and took just about everything with it. We were hit with sub-zero temperatures, rain, hail, and blizzards, which really should belong somewhere else. Like a movie, or Sydney. People were miserable, wet and some even reconsidering their stance on whether climate change is actually bad.

It's still winter. Photo: Paul Rovere

The feeling that spring was so far away

Spring is not an automatic gateway to sunshine and board shorts, but it's not winter, so that's good enough. Has there been a winter in recent years that felt so far away? When an icy blast hits your face as soon as you leave the office, it feels like better times will never come. But it's okay! Spring is here and everything is going to be alright. We have hope.