CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia recorded the driest October in more than 20 years due to an El Nino weather pattern which has seen hot, dry conditions hit crop yields in one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, the national weather bureau said on Wednesday.
In its regular drought report, the Bureau of Meteorology said last month was Australia’s driest October since 2002, with rainfall 65% below the 1961–1990 average.
It said every part of Australia except the state of Victoria had below-average rainfall and Western Australia state — by far the biggest grain-exporting region — saw its driest October on record.
After three years of plentiful rain, the El Nino weather phenomenon has brought hot and dry weather to Australia, with September the driest since records began in 1900.
Rain in some parts of the country in early October halted a rapid decline in projected crop yields but the country’s wheat harvest is still expected to fall by around 35% this year to some 26 million tons.
“Areas of (rainfall) deficiency have generally expanded and become more severe in south-west Western Australia, south-eastern Queensland, and parts of the Top End in the Northern Territory and far north Queensland. Deficiencies eased in southern Victoria and eastern Tasmania,” the bureau said.
Its long range forecast predicts below-median rainfall through to at least January in northern, western and southern Australia.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Michael Perry)
