Most of Australia set to be ‘unusually warm’ this winter
The Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) has issued a forecast for the winter months and it could be bad news if you have a ski trip planned.
Environment
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Most of Australia will experience an “usually warm” winter this year, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
The official forecast from June to August shows that huge areas of NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, WA and South Australia are likely to experience warmer than average temperatures.
It could be bad news for winter sports for a second year in a row after resorts suffered one of the worst snow seasons in 20 years last year.
The depth of snow in elevated areas of the Snowy Mountains was its lowest in 17 years during the 2023 season, according to figures by Snowy Hydro.
Last year was Australia’s warmest winter on record and some experts say it could be even warmer in some areas this year.
But there could be hope for skiers yet, with BOM senior climatologist Simon Grainger saying that the warmer forecast does not necessarily rule out good snow conditions.
“Snowfall in south-east Australia is really determined by cold fronts, and weather systems that we can forecast in the short term,” Dr Grainger told theABC.
“So we can still get a single, big weather event that could make a significant difference to the overall snow season.”
While most Aussies can expect a hotter winter ahead it is less clear whether conditions will be drier or wetter than average.
According to BOM, figures show that parts of WA’s mid-west, central Australia and parts of Queensland can expect to receive more than average rainfall this winter.
This will be welcome news to WA farmers, some of which have just suffered through eight months of crippling drought.
However the rest of Australia could really go either way, with a 50/50 chance of it being wetter or drier than average.
It follows an extremely dry autumn in most southern parts of the country.
Experts are now turning their attention to the La Nina weather pattern which has stronger easterly winds than usual, meaning that northern and eastern Australia could experience wetter than average conditions.
It comes after BOM declared the end of the 2023-24 El Nino event last month.
El Nino is a phase that sees easterly equatorial winds in the Pacific slow or even reverse, increasing the odds in eastern Australia for a dry winter into spring.
La Nina is the opposite pattern.
Record-breaking winter
The temperatures this winter threaten to surpass last year’s benchmark as the warmest winter since records began in 1910.
Average daily temperatures were 1.53C above the long-term winter average in 2023, according to bureau data.
Every winter since 2012 has been warmer than the 30-year average.
Originally published as Most of Australia set to be ‘unusually warm’ this winter
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