Enjoy That Warm Spring Weather Because There’s Plenty of Rain on the Way

Spring has arrived in Australia and, while a big chunk of us ended up spending this year’s mild winter inside our houses, the next three months should hopefully herald a return to the outside.

The Bureau of Meteorology has released its climate outlook for the spring season in Australia and it looks like wet and warm weather is ahead of us.

Here’s what Australia is in for over the next few months.

How about that winter?

Australia is coming out of its fourth warmest winter on record, according to BOM.

It was simultaneously the wettest winter since 2016 and we probably have the bomb cyclone to thank for that.

One area in WA even managed a whopping 39 degrees Celsius during winter. No thank you.

For Australia as a whole, the mean temperature for winter was 1.18°C above average —the 4th warmest winter on record.

Overall, winter rainfall was 4% below average but the wettest since 2016.

Learn more in our national climate summary: https://t.co/i6wOugXbYb pic.twitter.com/qRPzRFnqDB

— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) September 1, 2021

What’s in store for spring?

BOM reports that the negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is likely to persist during spring.

The IOD is one of Australia’s main climate drivers and was established to be in its negative phase in July which helped give us that wettest winter result.

Over the next few months, the impact of the IOD will likely result in more rainfall in the southern and eastern parts of Australia.

The BOM also predicted that a whopping two-thirds of the country will experience above-average rainfall during spring. This will mainly occur in parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory and South Australia. That leaves Western Australia and Tasmania with a drier outlook and some areas are expected to have a below-average period of rainfall.

In terms of temperature, spring days will be warmer than average across the northern parts of WA, QLD and the NT, along with Tasmania. Nighttime temperatures are also predicted to be above average across all of Australia, excluding the southwest.

Warmer temperatures of course bring us into bushfire season. The bushfire outlook for September through to November shows above-normal fire potential in South-East Queensland and North-Eastern NSW.

On the whole, this year’s spring weather will bring more rain and warmer than average temperatures across large swathes of the country.

This means it’s time to pack your umbrellas and abandon your extra blankets because spring has officially sprung.