THE El Nino weather pattern has ended.
That’s the word from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).
Fortunately, the El Nino influence on rainfall has had little impact in this area of South East Queensland.
It usually means a long, dry Summer and not much to alleviate that trend in Autumn with the result that going into Winter, there’s little feed in the paddocks and lawns are so dry, the grass crackles when we walk on it.
The pattern of ‘rain deficits’ during an El Nino held true until the end of October last year, but changed markedly in November and December.
The trend continued into this year to the extent that local areas had recorded more than 50 percent of the annual average rainfall by the end of last week.
The BoM weather station on the Rosewood Walloon Road showed that the rainfall tally so far this year was 492mm (19.4ins) – that is 56 percent of the annual average rainfall (883mm).
The Tallegalla station had recorded 546mm (21.5ins), which is 66 percent of the annual average rainfall for the area (871mm).
At the Amberley weather station the rainfall tally to date is 458mm (18ins), which is 57 percent of the annual average rainfall (808mm).
According to a report from BoM this week, the weather pattern will likely remain in a neutral phase (neither El Nino or La Nina) until at least July.
