When the Bureau of Meteorology declared an El Niño, there were warnings of a hot and dry summer. But for thousands of Australians, that's not been the case at all. Why not?

When the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) declared an El Niño event in September, there were warnings of a hot and dry summer.

But for thousands of Queenslanders especially — from the storm-ravaged south-east to the flooded Far North — that’s not been the case at all.

As a Brisbanite, I can definitely vouch for this one. It’s literally raining right this second, and our backyard is already a swamp…

tl;dr:

Over the past month, while Queensland faced record-breaking rainfall, South Australia and Western Queensland sweated through heatwave conditions as bushfires burned in the west.

Dr Brown attributed the variation of El Niño experiences across the country to an average of hot and dry conditions and not a totality.

“When we talk about dry conditions from an El Niño, it’s not dry everywhere – it’s dry on average,” Dr Brown said.