Outlook predicts wet December for NSW

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has released its first climate outlook for summer 2018-19. While the forecast still shows a 70% chance of El Niño developing, the outlook for December has seen a significant improvement on previous forecasts, particularly for NSW. The wetter-than-average outlook for central and eastern parts of NSW comes as a welcome change, with 99.3% of the state currently drought declared (NSW DPI).

For the December to January period, large areas of WA, Queensland and the Northern territory will likely see drier-than-average conditions, due primarily to the higher-than-average possibility of El Niño.