WHAT little rain we saw over summer certainly wasn't enough to make life easy for producers in the region.

Spring saw 123mm fall, followed by a December to February that saw only a little more at about 156mm (measurements taken from Bureau of Meteorology - Warwick).

Warwick farmer Luciano Fontana summed summer up in one word.

"Dry," he said.

"Too dry overall, we just had enough rain to plant, but needed to rely on irrigation to keep us going.

"That's an extra cost for us, we'd save it a lot if rained instead."

Mr Fontana said some crops suffered due to the lack of water and the heat.

"We can't irrigate the whole place at the same time so some crops had to waiti and it affected them

"We were also growing a lot of pumpkins and those heatwaves damaged both plant and products in that case."

As for autumn, Mr Fontana has one wish.

"A little wetter autumn would be great."

Bureau of Meteorologist Janine Yuasa said the Southern Downs summer had been drier that average.

"It was a warm and dry summer across the whole region," she said.

"Rainfall was below average, and the coming autumn has a fifty/fifty chance for being around average temperature and rainfall.

"The mean maximum temperature over summer was 31.6, which was two degrees above the long-term average."

In Dalveen cattle farmer John Gross said summer was 'fairly tough'.

"The heat and the dry were the main problems," he said.

"Even though we didn't have good rain, the rain we did we get we got just in time.

"There was some good rain between Christmas and New Year, so the cattle didn't suffer.

"Our dams are suffering, water will be an issue if we don't see some decent falls shortly."

A BOM national seasonal outlook for autumn (March to May) shows daytime temperatures are likely to be warmer than average for most of Australia, except eastern NSW and southeastern Queensland, which have roughly equal chances of a warmer or cooler than average season.

The autumn (March to May) rainfall outlook, issued 28 February 2018, shows large parts of central and southeastern Australia are likely to have a drier than average season.

Overnight temperatures are likely to be warmer than average for the northeast, central and southern parts of Australia. The northwest and parts of the east have roughly equal chances of a warmer or cooler than average season.

A weak and short-lived La Niña continues to break down, with a return to neutral conditions expected by mid-autumn. In the past, the break down of weak La Niña events has seen drier conditions during autumn. See the Climate Influences section for more information.

Summer on the Southern Downs by the numbers:

December:

• Rainfall - 51.4mm (average - 81mm)
• Temperature - maximum range 37.6 degrees to 23 degrees, (average maximum - 33 degrees)
• Lowest temperature - 8.4 degrees on December 6.
• 13 days below 30 degrees

January:

• Rainfall - 33.8mm (average - 87.9mm)
• Temperature - maximum range 39.7 degrees to 28.2 degrees, (average maximum - 33 degrees)
• Lowest temperature - 10.4 degrees on January 19.
• Two days below 30 degrees

February:

• Rainfall - 69.6mm (average - 56.7mm)
• Temperature - maximum range 40.1 degrees to 16.9 degrees (February 2, weather record for coldest February day).
• Lowest temperature - 9.6 degrees on February 9.
• 13 days below 30 degrees