Forecast

Issue Notes - Issued Apr 14

ENSO status: Neutral. IOD status: Neutral, potentially trending negative during winter. SAM status: Positive. La Niña has concluded, with neutral conditions expected until at least the end of Autumn. A few models are predicting La Niña conditions to return later this year, while the majority of models predict neutral conditions. While La Niña has returned to neutral, the oceans around northern Australia are warmer than normal. This is expected to generate above normal rainfall for much of Australia during the next month or so. Some models are suggesting a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) may develop during winter, which would increase rainfall across parts of Australia during winter. During Autumn, many parts of Australia are likely to be wetter than normal, due to warmer waters off the northern coast of Australia. Southern parts of SA, VIC, most of TAS and southwest WA are likely to observe normal precipitation for the time of year. During winter, much of the Australia is likely to bewetter than normal, apart from far southwestern WA, southern VIC and much of TAS. The negative IOD may be playing a part in this, potentially feeding moisture into cold fronts sweeping across Australia's snowfields. Therefore a normal to above normal snow season is forecast.