Warm and dry.

The Bureau of Meteorology's outlook for winter this year is not good news for anyone in the south-east of the mainland hoping for rain, and the jury is still out on what it will mean for the snow season.

June is looking particularly dry with below-average rainfall expected for all or some of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, southern Queensland and parts of Western Australia.

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Both daytime and overnight temperatures are expected to be above-average for all of Australia apart from the very north.

This is following a hot and dry autumn for large parts of Australia.

In a sneak peak into the review of autumn, due on Friday, the bureau has said that southern mainland states had one of their driest autumns since 1900.

The chance of above median maximum temperature for June to August. ( Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology )

The autumn break — the first significant rainfall of winter — arrived for large parts of southern Australia in May, but many cropping regions have yet to get significant rain this year.

Why so hot?

The drivers that normally govern the Australian climate are currently in neutral.

The Bureau said this means local effects will have more of an influence.

In this case, warm ocean temperatures are leading to below average pressure over the Tasman Sea.

The outlook said this will weaken the westerlies that usually bring winter rain to the south of Australia.

What will this mean for farmers?

Roger Dietrich farms sheep, canola, wheat and lupin in Old Junee, about 50 kilometres north of Wagga Wagga in NSW, right where the outlook suggests there will be the lowest chance of above-median rainfall over winter.

He said it has been very dry since late last year.

"We are starting to get a little bit of rain right now but we need a lot more than what we've had." he said.

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Mr Dietrich said it is just wet enough now to sow wheat, but he still needs rain over the next few months.

Many farmers with winter crops depend on the autumn break to plant.

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Some do 'dry sow', putting the seeds in the ground before there is significant rain, but the talk among grain farmers has been that this season's yield and quality will be down because it has been so hot and dry.

Most farmers expect this year's winter crop to be well below previous seasons.

How about the snow season?

The jury is still out.

The drier and warmer-than-average forecast this winter is a mixed bag for Australia's ski resorts, potentially bringing heavy snow later in the season in a repeat of 2017 conditions.

"Snowfall is difficult to predict over long timeframes, but the dry outlook for June suggests a later-than-normal start for the snow season," Jonathon Pollock, a climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, said.

"However, when ENSO [El Nino Southern Oscillation] and IOD [Indian Ocean Dipole] are neutral we have historically seen deeper-than-average snow cover by mid-season."

Falls Creek, which on Thursday saw autumn snow, could see another extended snow season. ( Supplied: Falls Creek )

Warmer-than-average winter days and nights could make retaining snow more difficult, but dry conditions are ideal for snow making — even if conditions are warmer — according to Sophie Webber from Falls Creek in Victoria.

"Dry conditions mean you can make snow at slightly warmer temperatures above zero. But the colder the better, and we hope mother nature brings plenty of cold weather to balance out the snow making," she said.

It's already snowy in Falls Creek on the last day of autumn. ( Supplied )

Bill Barker, head of Ski Patrol at Mt Hotham in Victoria, said he was not too worried about the dry prediction.

"Last year we ended up with a bumper season after starting with a drier than average early season in June and July," he said.

"But those conditions mean it'll be very good for snow making."

Retaining snow depends on exactly how much warmer it is.

"It's hard to be accurate, but if [the temperature] is warmer than average and goes above zero [degrees] then it is going to have an effect," Mr Barker said.

"However, if it's warmer than average but stays below zero then it won't."

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Some resorts extended their ski season by an extra week last year, and Falls Creek's Sophie Webber said she also hopes for a repeat this season.

"Last year in September we cracked two metres [snow depth], and we closed in October with 1.5 metres of snow still on the ground," she said.