Australia just had its third warmest and equal fifth driest October on record.

The strongest positive Indian Ocean Dipole in at least two decades helped limit rainfall across Australia during October. The country as a whole had its driest October in 17 years and the equal fifth driest in 120 years of records.

The below average rain exacerbated drought conditions across large areas of the Murray Darling Basin, which also registered its fifth driest October on record.

A lack of cloud cover also saw daytime temperatures soar last month, with the country experiencing its 2nd warmest October on record based on maximum temperatures. It was also Australia's third warmest October basen on mean temperature (combined mininum and maximum).

October continued a trend of abnormally dry and warm weather that has gripped large parts of Australia during the first 10 months of the year. The country registered its hottest and second driest January to October period on record, based on daytime maximum temperatures.

While there has already been some useful rain in parts of Australia's eastern inland during the opening days of November, this doesn't mean that weather patterns are shifting towards more rain.

The latest seasonal outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology last Thursday suggests that drier-than-usual weather and warmer-than-usual days are expected to persist for most of Australia during the rest of 2019.

Visit http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks for the latest climate outlooks.