An extremely dry winter has prompted authorities in New South Wales to bring forward the start of the bushfire season for much of the state.

As worsening drought conditions across NSW continue to put a strain on farmers, a long stretch of below average rainfall has the state’s rural fire service looking nervously towards the coming summer.

“We’ve had next to no rain in some parts of the state for quite a long time – it means we could be in for a very, very bad summer,” a spokesman from the NSW Rural Fire Service, James Morris, told the Guardian on Wednesday.

The bushfire season for a large portion of the state’s west and north has now been brought forward from October to the beginning of August.

Last week there were 525 bushfires burning across NSW, almost double the number at the same time last year. Morris said a “considerable proportion” of those have been concentrated in the state’s north and the agricultural regions that make up the Liverpool Plains.

The main cause was an unusually dry and warm stretch of weather conditions across the state. This year saw the seventh-driest May on record in NSW, part of an “exceptionally dry” month nationally, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

It was followed by another dry June in which rainfall was 31% below the state’s average, continuing a run of six consecutive drier than average months for the state.

June also continued a run of 14 consecutive months of warmer than average daytime temperatures across the state.

Those conditions are expected to continue as the weather warms up. Earlier in July the BOM’s climate outlook for the months from August to October showed that the south-east mainland and parts of northern Australia were likely to be drier than average.

“It goes to show how dry the landscape is out there, and how much rain we haven’t had,” Morris said.

This week the RFS announced 10 local government areas in the state’s north-east will have tighter restrictions on burning, including Armidale, the Clarence Valley, Lismore and Inverell.



“Areas in the north of the state are experiencing extremely dry conditions and it is a worrying sign, especially given we have only received half of average rainfall during winter and no meaningful rain is forecast in the next few months,” the deputy commissioner, Rob Rogers, said.

“Conditions along the coast and especially west of the ranges are drier than average, which is of great concern leading into the bushfire season.”

Rainfall has also been below average in the eastern and northern parts of Queensland. According to the BOM, some areas recorded their lowest total June rainfall on record, or in several decades.

The executive manager of bushfire mitigation at Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, James Haig, said large parts of the state were drying out “very rapidly”.