Does the Great Barrier Reef Have Only Two Seasons? Wet & Dry—But It's More Nuanced

The reef experiences two pronounced seasons per the Australian Bureau of Meteorology:

• Wet season: November–April (monsoonal rains, cyclones, freshwater runoff, lower salinity, higher temps)
• Dry season: May–October (cooler, clearer water, southeast trade winds, peak visibility)

But marine life cycles—coral spawning (Oct–Nov), whale migrations (Jun–Sep), turtle nesting (Nov–Mar)—create ecological "seasons" that don't align neatly with wet/dry. Researchers recognize 4–6 functional seasons based on temperature, light, nutrients, and species activity.

So: two climatic seasons, many biological ones.