11 Summers I have spent in Sydney and I have never known anything like this, and long time locals born here haven't seen anything like this in a long time -
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/parched-state-rain-stays-away-as-towns-record-their-driest-summer-in-years-20140130-31pom.html
The typical summer pattern in Sydney is for the dry sunny Spring weather to break (Sydney's peak bushfire season is Oct - Dec for a reason) around Christmas. January and February are supposed to be humid with lots of heavy downpours and storms. Also we usually get a tropical infeed from the northern monsoon which can bring some massive rainfall totals. Last year the remains of Cyclone Oswald brough tropical style torrential rain to Sydney which caused localised flooding and some dams to spill over.
Could be more different this year. Hardly a patch of green grass to be seen. All the parks are sun burnt and yellow and I gave up on my grass at home at the start of Jan.
Even the eucalyptus trees seem to have gone in to drought mode and are drooping!
And this in what is supposed to be a neutral state, no El Nino is causing this extrodinary weather!
As spring was also hot and dry it felt like summer started in August and just keeps on rolling!