"Instead of the long, lazy wet periods, a lot of it is coming in short intense, dumps which could be climate change having an effect," he said.

Prof. Stone says these accentuated weather patterns have become increasingly familiar since the 1950s.

"The story of the day is the rainfall probabilities being above normal across eastern Australia," he said.

"There's opportunity for more storms and associated hail."

Meanwhile, the southern oscillation index (SOI) remains strongly positive, an indicator for ongoing wet weather this summer.

Currently, the seasonal outlook is suggesting a 50-70pc chance of median rainfall across Queensland into early 2009.

With the 30-day average standing at +14.04, Prof. Stone says the SOI remains "consistently, strongly positive", appearing to be climbing again – a trend that has been evident since June/July of this year.

The SOI is calculated from the monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the air pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin.

A strongly positive SOI pattern suggests a high probability of above the long-term average rainfall patterns.

Conversely, a consistently negative SOI pattern is related to a high probability of below median rainfall for many areas of Australia.