Australia Weather News

People in the Top End have sweltered through one of the hottest wet seasons on record, and can now expect a warmer-than-usual dry season, a weather expert says.

The Bureau of Meteorology said a number of records in the Northern Territory had tumbled during May.

"The NT overall had its warmest overnight [May] temperatures on record," senior climate liaison officer Greg Browning said.

"It had the second-warmest daytime and the second-warmest overall temperatures.

"We had rainfall that was three times the average.

"Darwin again has broken its record for its highest maximum temperatures through May, as well as its highest minimum temperatures."

The city has not seen a night time temperature below 20 degrees Celsius this year.

Better wet season forecast

The warm, humid conditions in May came after a wet season that was far drier and hotter than usual.

Mr Browning said the impact of El Nino was to blame for the record conditions.

"We are probably not going to see an average — and definitely not an above average — dry season as far as those number of cool nights," Mr Browning said.

But he said people could look forward to a cooler and wetter wet season to come.

"We have transitioned out of our El Nino which was pretty much responsible for most of the really warm and dry conditions that we saw in the Top End this last wet season," Mr Browning said.

"We are heading along the path to La Nina, which is the other end of the spectrum.

"If a La Nina does come up we could see an early start to rainfall in the build-up and continuing throughout the wet season," he said.