El Nino begins, worsening likelihood drought over inland Australia

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 "substantial" El Nino event has begun, raising the likelihood of worsening drought over inland Australia and higher daytime temperatures, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

"This will be quite a substantial event," said David Jones, head of climate monitoring at the bureau. "It's not a weak one or a near miss" as in 2014, he said. "This event is perhaps running ahead of where the models had predicted."

El Ninos are events in which equatorial trade winds in the Pacific weaken or even reverse their normal east-to-west pattern. Rainfall tends to shift eastwards away from the Australian continent and south-east Asia, while countries on the eastern Pacific fringe cop more rain than usual.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald story - “Bureau of Meteorology declares El Nino event in Australia”.