El Nino passing officially declared

The weather bureau has officially declared the end of El Nino, as the threat of a significant rainfall event looms for Queensland.

In a statement, the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed that the Pacific Ocean had changed to ENSO neutral conditions, marking the end of the El Nino climate pattern.

“The tropical Pacific Ocean has returned to ENSO-neutral according to the latest monitoring by the Bureau of Meteorology,” the statement read.

“The change to ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) neutral conditions means neither El Nino nor La Nina are active.

“The long-range forecast is the best guidance for future rainfall and temperature beyond the short-term weather forecast.”

Sky News Weather meteorologist Rob Sharpe said while El Nino had not been influencing Australia’s weather patterns for many months now, it did have an impact during the horror bushfire season Queensland experienced last year.

“El Nino was part of the reason why Australia had a particularly dry August to October period,” Mr Sharpe said.

“I would think that El Nino had a part to play in exacerbating the fire risk that we saw back in spring last year in Queensland.”

Mr Sharpe said that following the end of El Nino, Queensland faced the immediate threat of a “significant rain event”, several months after severe thunderstorms caused significant flooding in South East Queensland.

“In the short term, there is actually potential for a significant rain event in Queensland that could kick off as early as this weekend.

“The zone for the rain event potential at this stage is from Mackay to the NSW border,” Mr Sharpe said.