Warm and dry winter ahead. Sounds good? Not to our farmers.

The winter climate forecast for much of Australia is the same as it was for summer: warmer and drier than previous years.

There'll be fog and frost and moody sunsets. There just
won't be much rain and the snow will be on the thin side. 

While that might sound pleasant if you’re freezing your ears off at the moment, it’s horrible news for farmers caught in the drought that will not be broken by winter rains.

A map from the Bureau of Meteorology shows that the chance of rain for Queensland, NSW and Victoria – and half of South Australia and almost all of the Northern Territory (which is in its dry season anyway) – runs between 20 and 40 per cent.

The lowest forecasts – between 20 and 30 per cent chance of good rain – look to occur in Australia’s food bowl and grazing country.

Read the story from The New Daily by John Elder - “Warm and dry winter ahead. Sounds good? Not to our farmers.”