It would come as no surprise to most that Katherine has fallen well behind on rain totals.
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Almost everyone who crosses the highway bridge cranes their neck to check the railway bridge gauge with alarm.
With one month left in the official wet season, Katherine is 221mm off the pace.
So far this wet season the town has recorded 606.2mm against an average of 827mm.
And historically, March is one of the poorest contributors to our wet season totals with 167.7mm.
The Bureau of Meteorology today produced their climate outlook which predicts March will be another shocker for the Top End, with less rain than average.
The bureau said its outlook was for drier than average conditions are likely for large parts of northern and eastern Australia, and warmer than average conditions are very likely for the entire country.
It comes on the back of what will be Australia's warmest summer on record.
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The Bureau's manager of long-range forecasting, Dr Andrew Watkins, acknowledged the outlook is not the news many would be wanting to hear.
"After a record hot December and January it won't come as a surprise that this summer will be our warmest on record, and apart from areas of northern Queensland, many locations fell short of their summer rainfall averages too," Dr Watkins said.
"Unfortunately, the outlook isn't giving a strong indication that we'll see a return to average or above average rainfall in many areas over the autumn period. The only exception is for parts of inland Western Australia.
"Autumn is obviously a critical time of year for agriculture, particularly in the southern parts of the country. It's important to remember that despite what the outlook is suggesting, individual heavy rainfall events are always possible, and people should stay up to date with the latest seven-day forecast and warnings for their area."
The outlooks also show that warmer than average conditions are very likely to continue through autumn.
"If we have a look at what's driving the outlook, we can see that Australia's two main climate drivers in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole are currently in a neutral phase, meaning there's no strong influence from either. But things have been warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean over the past month, so we are currently at El Nino WATCH – meaning double the normal chance of an El Nino forming in autumn.
"We are also observing cooler than average waters off the coast of Western Australia, which may reduce the number of rain-bearing systems impacting the south of the country.
"We also know that 24 of the last 29 years have seen a drier than average start to autumn in south eastern Australia, due to a long term southwards shift of our weather patterns."
Preliminary figures indicate that Summer 2018-19 will be Australia's warmest summer on record, and will also be among the top ten driest since national rainfall figures started in 1910.
It's also expected the current summer period will be among the top five warmest on record for each state and territory.
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