The current El Nino has been established for six months but still has not peaked, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The event is comparable to the super-El Ninos of 1982/83 and 1997/98, and sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific are now 2.4 degrees above average.

Temperatures should peak before the end of this year before gradually easing in the first quarter of next year, the bureau says.

El Nino usually brings dry and hot weather to much of Australia, increasing bushfire risk.

A positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), which has been in place for three months, has exacerbated the effect, leading to an unseasonably warm September and October.

However, CSIRO climate expert Wenju Cai told insuranceNEWS.com.au the positive IOD is rapidly weakening, while recent heavy rain in many areas is not unprecedented in El Nino years.

“In 1997, the biggest El Nino [in the past] century, Australia had a dry July, August and September but then quite a bit of rain from October,” he said.

“We would expect the summer will still be hot and dry, but sometimes history can repeat itself.”