Winter to be warmer, drier, says bureau

WARMER, drier conditions are in store for much of the nation over coming months, but winter has not been cancelled, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

The bureau yesterday released its climate outlook for June to August, forecasting winter days and nights are likely to be warmer than average for most of Australia.

Only far north Queensland and the Northern Territory are expected to experience average maximum temperatures.

Bureau head of long-range forecasts Andrew Watkins said the warm and dry conditions were due to a high pressure system hovering over the continent, with cold fronts that normally bring rain sitting farther south than normal.

He said while that wasn’t ideal for farmers, Australia wasn’t “locked in” to the conditions for the rest of the year.

“We don’t have an El Nino and we don’t have a similar problem in the Indian Ocean,” he said. “And that’s a good thing — it means we’re not necessarily locked in to the dry for the rest of the year.

“We have what we call neutral ENSO conditions, or neutral climate conditions.”

Dr Watkins said the country was still waiting for “good rains” to come through and fill dams and reservoirs, noting conditions were “not the best” for starting crops.

“Stream flows are expected to be quite low, meaning rivers and streams in southern Australia are likely to have lower stores than normal,” he says.

“It doesn’t mean winter has been cancelled by any means — we’ll still get rainfall, probably mid-winter and onwards.”

Dr Watkins said parts of southern Australia and southern Victoria had had their autumn breaks and Western Australia might get rain in coming days.

The winter outlook follows what the bureau labelled one of Australia’s warmest autumns on record and its second-warmest summer on record.