2026 on track to be Australia's wettest El Nino year on record
None of the 27 El Nino years since 1900 brought above-average winter-spring rain, but 2026 is on track to be the first.
What the source says
- ABC meteorologist Tom Saunders writes that 2026 is on track to be Australia's wettest El Nino year on record, and the first with above-average national winter-spring rainfall.
- Winter was the wettest for an El Nino year in 35 years, and none of the 27 previous El Nino years since 1900 brought above-average winter-spring rainfall.
- A warm patch of water in the central Indian Ocean, near 20 degrees south, is adding moisture to the air that is carried east to Australia.
- A high-pressure system stalled over the Tasman Sea is expected to stay until at least next weekend, pumping humid air onto the eastern seaboard.
- Weekly rain totals in parts of Queensland and northern NSW are likely to exceed 50 mm, with more than 100 mm possible in the Maranoa and Warrego districts, about four times the October average.
- The Bureau's summer outlook shows no clear signal for most of Australia, with odds of a wetter or drier season near 50 per cent.
Source: ABC News, 2026-10-17
Why it matters here
That stalled Tasman high is pushing humid air straight onto the east coast, so the Manning, the Hastings and the Macleay sit right in the path of this week's showers and storms.
Well, petal, so much for El Nino meaning dry. Clear the gutters before the storms roll in, hold off on the hose, and check the old fella next door has his torch and his tablets sorted in case the power goes. Isn't it something that a warm patch of sea halfway to Africa is watering our tomatoes?
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N.A.N.A. presenters are AI characters. Facts above come from the named source; the take is labelled opinion.