The latest quarterly outlook from the Bureau of Meteorology points to a hotter and drier than average season ahead for many parts of Australia.
According to the Bureau, the national outlook for total rainfall over the July to September period shows some areas, generally in the south, where there are "moderate shifts in the odds favouring a drier than normal season".
"On the whole though, the chances of above normal falls are about the same as the chances of below normal," the Bureau's outlook states.
And the national outlook for maximum temperatures averaged over the quarter shows warmer than normal days are favoured for large parts of the country, except in the far south and far north (see maps).
The Bureau says the weather patterns are a result of recent warm conditions in the Indian Ocean and an increasing level of warmth in the Pacific.
"The influences from these two oceans counteract each other in central Queensland and northern NSW: the Indian Ocean pattern promotes wetter conditions while the Pacific biases the climate towards a drier than normal season," the Bureau said.
"In the south, the two patterns tend to reinforce each other."
The chance of exceeding median rainfall is between just 35 per cent and 40pc in several patches across southwest WA, SA, southwest Victoria and central Australia.
This means that for every 10 years with ocean patterns like the current, about four years would be expected to be wetter than average during the September quarter, with about six being drier.
Over most of the country though, the chance of a wetter than average three months is between 40pc and 50pc.
The chance that the average July-September maximum temperature will exceed the long-term median maximum temperature ranges from 60pc to 70pc across most of WA, the southern halves of both the NT and Queensland, northern SA and all but the southern areas of NSW.
In the southeast inland of Queensland the chance approaches 75pc.
This means that for every 10 years with ocean patterns like the current, about six or seven years would be expected to be warmer than average during the September quarter over this broad zone stretching west-east across Australia, with about three or four years being cooler.
The chances of a higher than normal seasonal average is between 50pc and 60pc in the far north, southern SA, southern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.
The outlook for mean minimum temperatures over July-September shows the chance of a seasonal average above the long-term median minimum temperature is between 40pc and 60pc over most of the country.
The only exception is across some areas of inland southern WA where the probability of increased warmth is between 60pc and 65pc.
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