Weatherzone meteorologist James Casey said the El Nino weather event taking hold of south-eastern Australia was set to spark warmer than average temperatures throughout December to February.

During El Nino events, high-pressure systems tend to sit over the country, making it harder for clouds to develop and bring rain.

Mr Casey said Canberra was in the midst of an El Nino southern oscillation, the period between the drier El Nino phase and the wetter La Nina phase.

It's the strongest El Nino weather pattern since 1997, according to ACT Rural Fire Service, and could extend the fire season well into autumn.

"That means for eastern parts of Australia, warmer and drier [conditions]," Mr Casey said.

"In terms of rainfall, we can assume that's going to be pretty similar. Dry conditions are expected for the Canberra region with...rainfall expected to be below average over summer, consistent with El Nino."

Mr Casey said a shift in climate conditions meant Canberrans were in for a scorcher compared to recent summers.

"Over the last few years we've been in a neutral phase of the El Nino southern isolation and we've now transitioned into that El Nino phase," he said.

"In neutral conditions, we pretty much see average rainfall and average temperatures. In El Nino we're going to see a shift towards warmer temperatures than average and below average rainfall."

There's a 75 to 80 per cent chance the ACT could exceed its median maximum temperature between November and January, according to the Bureau of Meteorology's latest climate outlook.

Canberra's average maximum temperature for November is 23.5 degrees, while December's is 26.3 degrees. January's top average is 28.5 degrees, slightly higher than February's 28.1 degrees.

The early forecast is bad news for the region's firefighters, with an elevated fire risk throughout the ACT.

"Based on the El Nino and warmer and drier conditions than normal we can expect the bushfire risk to be a bit higher than normal as well," Mr Casey said.

The official bushfire season began on October 1 with emergency services urging Canberrans to implement or revise a fire plan.

A new map produced by the ACT Emergency Services Agency has revealed only the region's central, clustered suburbs escape the 'bush fire prone' tag, with heavily-vegetated regions or suburbs on the fringe of nature reserves and scrub in the line of wildfire this summer.

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Photos must be between 150 kilobytes and one megabyte. Winners will take home a share of a $1000 prize.