Heading into the great outdoors this weekend? Pack your umbrella and gum boots, it’s going to be a wet one!

TropicNow caught up with meteorologist Michelle Berry, from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, for an in-depth look at this weekend’s weather forecast.

“It will remain cloudy in Cairns and the surrounding areas right through the weekend and into early next week. There will be some showers and drizzle with that. You should start to see more sun coming through mid to late next week,” Ms Berry said.

WHERE’S THE DRY SEASON?

As we reschedule our beach barbeques and put our garden makeovers on hold, we find ourselves asking: isn’t Cairns supposed to be in the dry season?

Despite the common belief that Cairns has two distinct wet and dry seasons, Michelle Berry explains that this isn’t in fact the case.

“Northern Territory and Darwin really do experience a dry season. If you think about the Territory, the prevailing wind is travelling over land and it’s a much drier air flow, whereas the South Easterly wind that is coming into Cairns is coming off the water," Ms Berry said.

"That’s why Cairns doesn’t really have a dry season, it’s just dryer.

“We don’t have monsoon or cyclones in the winter months, but we still can have drizzly conditions and showers,” she adds.

DREARY JUNE

The current dreary weather conditions may be putting a dampener on the school holidays, but is it really all that wet?

Surprisingly, the rainfall in June has been below average.

Ms Berry affirms that “the average rainfall in Cairns for June is about 48mm. So far Cairns has had about 30mm of rain which is below average.”

“Cairns has had a lot of dreary days, a lot of drizzly days. Although it’s been drizzling, there has not been that much rain on the gauge,” she adds.