Climate scientists are warning an El Nino event in the Pacific brings bushfire conditions, with drier and warmer weather expected for parts of Australia.
The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the weather event and said forecasts signalled a "strong to very strong" El Nino climatic pattern, but a potent system does not necessarily bring strong weather impacts for Australia.
Climate Councillor Andrew Watkins, formerly of the Australian Climate Service and Bureau of Meteorology, said El Nino and climate change were an alarming combination, with the latter already adding about 1.5C of warming to the system.
"Climate pollution from coal, oil and gas supercharges heat, dangerous fire weather and aggressive events like flash droughts ... together, climate pollution and El Nino are loading the dice towards record heat and fire conditions," he said.
