Winter will be warmer and wetter just like autumn, the BoM says. Photo: stock
The country can expect a warm, and wet, winter with unseasonal fire risks for Victoria and South Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says.
In its newly-released long-range forecast for winter, BoM says temperatures are likely to warmer than normal with more rainfall predicted for the interior and central parts.
(The forecast comes about a week before the snow season is due to officially start on June 7).
For parts of the tropical north, south-east and south-west, rainfall is expected to be in the typical winter range.
The BoM says ‘typical rainfall’ means a roughly equal possibility of above, below or near-average rainfall.
This will include those parts of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and NSW already hit by drought and flooding.
The bureau says winter follows a wet autumn in the north and east of Australia and a drier one in southern parts.
Fire agencies are warning of an unseasonally greater risk of fire this winter across parts of South Australia and Victoria, it says.
BoM also broke down its winter forecast by state and territory, saying that warmer temperatures are expected both day and night.
- NSW/ACT: Rainfall is expected to be above average for much of the state and ACT. Parts of the eastern NSW are likely to experience typical rainfall of 100-300mm and higher falls in alpine regions. In western and central NSW, winter averages are expected to fall between 25 and 100 mm.
- VICTORIA: Rainfall is expected to be typical for much of the state (100-300 mm), 50-100mm for the north-west and 600mm for the far south and alpine areas.
- QUEENSLAND: Rainfall is expected to be typical for much of the state, with parts of the south and west likely to have above average rainfall.
- WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Rainfall expected to be above average for most of the state except for the south-west where rainfall is likely to be typical (100-400 mm), up to 600mm in the far south-west, 50-100 mm in parts of the west, central and south-east, 25-50 mm mid-state and less than 10 mm in the north.
- SOUTH AUSTRALIA: rainfall is likely to be above average for much of the state, except for the far south-east where it is expected to fall within the typical range (50-300 mm).
- TASMANIA: Winter rainfall is expected to be in the typical range for much of the state.
- NORTHERN TERRITORY: Winter rainfall is likely to be above average across the southern two-thirds of the Territory.
WARMING AUTUMN
As for autumn, the bureau says it was warmer, and drier, than usual for most of the country; across much of the south and west of the country, day temperatures were very much above average.
Victoria had its warmest autumn on record, NSW had its second warmest and South Australia and Western Australia had their third warmest autumn on record.
In its monthly summary for April, the BoM says the national average temperature was 1 degree Celsius hotter than for the 1961-90 average.
Victoria recorded its hottest April, 2.7⁰C above the 1961-90 average, since record-keeping began in 1910.
Mean minimum temperatures for April were the highest on record for much of central and south-eastern Victoria; the BoM says many stations recorded their highest minimum temperatures for April including some with more than 100 years of data.
