MetService modelling has the outlook for next month likely to include more hot conditions in eastern areas, with any rain unlikely to be drought-breaker material, and only dampening ground cover.
Forecaster Rochelle Fleming said no promises could be made at this stage in regards to farmer hopes that there might be some relief.
"There’s hints we may see a low forming somewhere near New Zealand. At this stage we can’t exactly pin down where, but it does lead to some uncertainty.
"For the central part of the South Island, the main story is there aren’t really any strong indicators for rain coming to those eastern areas."
Influencing weather patterns were above normal temperatures for the equatorial Pacific ocean and a slab of warm water along the eastern coast of Australia.
Mrs Fleming said the area had been in an El Nino all summer with the westerly flow reinforced over the past few weeks, especially over central and southern New Zealand.
"That’s probably what we’ve seen this summer as we’ve had these westerly spells, but we’ve also had these spells where you look at the weather map and it doesn’t look like an El Nino — so it has been a little atypical and it just happens in recent times that everything’s come together with that underlying El Nino to reinforce that westerly [flow].
She said modelling indicated the oceanic side of El Nino would come back to neutral levels heading into autumn and winter.
"What we do often see in New Zealand in an El Nino summer is the peak can be late summer and early autumn."
Mrs Fleming said a possible respite from the winds for Canterbury failed to include strong indications of a lot of moisture coming soon.
"There’s probably no real let-up that we can see, from what the data is indicating."
