Hi
I was at the solar eclipse conference in Delhi last December. In his talk about this November's weather prospects I believe that Jay Anderson said that, "there is only a 5% difference in mean cloud cover during an El nino year compared to a La Nina year."
So whilst it is slightly better news, don't start dancing in the streets yet. I can add a little to this. El niņo is basically a phenomena that affects winter spring rains in eastern & southern Australia. Yes Cairns is in the zone that is influenced. It's on the decay as summer approaches which is why it's effect on this eclipse is small.
The biggest influence on weather stability will be how advanced the progress of the intertropical convergence zones migration from Asia is by November.
Joe
http://joe-cali.com/eclipses