The summer weather outlook has been announced and it’s not looking good for our farmers or firefighters.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting hotter and drier conditions for the east coast of Australia.

It comes as much of the country is suffering through the worst drought on record.

“It is guaranteed that 2019 will be the driest year on record,” Sky News Meteorologist Tom Saunders tells Steve Price.

“The monsoon trough has not developed yet in our hemisphere. It’s still over the northern hemisphere and that’s unusual for December.

“We probably have at least another month before we see wide-spread relief across the country.”

Bureau of Meteorology

Mr Saunders is hopeful the rain will arrive by late summer but says it won’t be enough to break the drought.

“Hopefully, by the second half of January and into February we’ll start to get some rainfall.

“But we’re talking about average rain. To break this drought we need the wettest year on record in 2020 and it’s very unlikely. Or we need three years with well above average rain across the country.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview