Weather forecasters’ outlook for a soggy spring is being rewritten by a rare, sudden temperature spike high above Antarctica that could end the run of unusually wet weather on the eastern seaboard.

Temperatures have shot up by as much as 30 degrees in the stratosphere high above the South Pole, in what is known as a sudden stratospheric warming episode.

A drier, warmer spring is likelier thanks to an Antarctic weather anomaly. Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

The rare warming episode has only been recorded twice before, in 2002 and 2019, and in each instance months of warmer, dry conditions proceeded some of Australia’s worst bushfire seasons.

This year recent above-average rainfall has soaked the ground, reducing elevated risk of fires heading into summer.

Until recently, forecasters w

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