LA NIÑA UPDATE
The Bureau of Meteorology has maintained its La Niña Alert status in its latest Climate Driver Update, despite other countries' weather agencies declaring its official presence already.
Currently, the Bureau's outlook indicates that La Niña is around a 70% chance to reform later this year, triple the normal likelihood.
BoM head of long range forecasting Andrew Watkins said there are currently three wet climate drivers at play.
"We're seeing a developing La Niña situation out there in the tropical Pacific, adding to the negative IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) and the positive SAM (Southern Annular Mode) that's out there as well, keeping your outlooks quite wet," he said.
The ongoing Negative IOD is likely to persist into spring according to models surveyed by the Bureau.
The three-month climate outlook is for above average rainfall in the eastern two thirds of the country, again elevating the flood risk in the eastern states.
Currently, sea temperatures are around 0.7°C below average in the eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, up on the 0.5°C below average mark required by various countries to declare a La Niña event - it has already been declared by the United States, Japan and India, among other countries.
Australia's Bureau has a higher threshold to declare such events, generally requiring sea temperatures to be 0.8°C below average.
Check the WillyWeather app for your latest forecast, warnings and information📱
#photo by @_chasingsarah#lanina#pacificocean#australia#nsw#qld#rain#weatherzone#abcmyphoto#abcsydney#bomrain#bureauofmeteorology