Kansas City, July 27 (World Weather Inc.) – East-central Australia is still suffering from chronic dryness. Unirrigated areas of Queensland and northern New South Wales have been critically dry for an extended period of time and with El Nino possibly evolving later this year or in early 2019 there is concern that drought conditions will become much worse before they get better. The Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is possibly offering a little short term hope for the region after being consistently negative earlier this month. A notable rise in the SOI since July 10 has left some potential that August rainfall will be more normal than that of recent months.