Coping with drought forces farmers to bail out

El Nino as a hot dry phenomenon seems meaningless to Queensland farmers who have survived more than three years of drought. Now as Jenny Underwood hears warnings to ‘be prepared for El Nino this summer’, she feels her skin crawl. “There are areas of western and northern Queensland that have had very little rain for the past three to four years,” Jenny Underwood said. “To suddenly be told, ‘Be prepared it’s going to get drier and hotter, we’re going to call it El Nino.’