An exceptionally wet La Nina summer has officially come to an end, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, however it’s warned the weather event could return later this year.
The La Nina event brought flooding rain to much of Queensland and NSW earlier this year, resulting in the deaths of 22 people and more than $2billion in damage in Queensland alone.
The bureau says the La Nina has now ended but observations and climate models show there is a roughly 50 per cent chance it could form again during the year.
Dr Andrew Watkins, head of long range forecast at the Bureau, says the status has now been changed to La Nina Watch.
“The Bureau’s long-range outlook remains wetter-than-average, consistent with model outlooks from other global forecast centres, reflecting a range of climate drivers including a developing negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and warmer-than-average waters around Australia,” he said.
“Sea surface temperatures are currently warmer than average for much of the Australian coastline, particularly to the north and west. This pattern is likely to increase the chance of above average winter-spring rainfall for Australia.”
