A report from the Bureau of Meteorology has revealed 2013 was the hottest year on record in Australia.
Climate experts say they are unsurprised by the findings, and that Indigenous communities may be among the worst affected by temperature increases.
Naomi Selvaratnam has the details.
The Bureau of Meteorology's report shows 2013 recorded temperatures 1.2 degrees above average.
The previous record, set in 2005, was 1.03 degrees above average.
Assistant Director of Climate Information Services at the Bureau of Meteorology, Neil Plummer says this change is significant.
"It actually beats the previous record by a long way. That's significant that almost 0.2 degrees because what we're talking about is 0.2 degrees warming over the entire of Australia and throughout the year."
Director of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Professor Steven Sherwood, last year co-authored a study published in the journal, Nature.
He and a team of international researchers estimated temperatures across the globe will rise by 4 degrees by the end of the century.
Professor Sherwood says he's not surprised by the Bureau's latest report.
"It's not that surprising. Almost every month last year was well above average, and the global land temperatures have been warming up very steadily for the last 40 years. And Australia is more or less following along with that. Plus the unusual dryness in some parts of the country. We had a very hot year."
The Bureau of Meteorology says January 7 was the hottest summer day ever recorded, when temperatures across Australia averaged 40.3.
And August 31 was the warmest-ever winter day, averaging 29.9.
January 12th saw the highest temperature of the year - 49.6 at Moomba in South Australia.
It was also the highest temperature since 1998 -- and just short of the all time record of 50.7 degrees celsius, recorded at Oodnadatta (ood-nuh- DAT-uh) in January 1960.
Areas of the country experiencing average temperatures in 2013 were in the minority.
Around two thirds of the country fell into the above average or very much above average categories.
The other third recorded average temperatures that were the highest on record.
Australian temperatures have increased roughly 1 degree since 1950, which is consistent with international trends.
On a global scale, the past 13 years have ranked among the 14 warmest on record.
Professor Sherwood says that should his prediction that global average temperatures will increase by 4 degrees by the end of the century prove correct, some parts of Australia would become uninhabitable.
"Four degrees is a really serious situation. Because that would be enough to make your average Sydney summer the average Brisbane summer, and your average Brisbane summer would be worse than your average Darwin summer used to be, and Darwin I would question whether anybody could live in that sort of a climate. So we're talking about a very different, even though it doesn't sound like a lot, a very different climate."
Indigenous Australians would be among the most severely affected by such a temperature increase.
Professor Sherwood says entire communities may be forced to leave lands they have lived on for hundreds of years.
"I think it would be terrible. And it wouldn't just be that part of Australia, we're talking about a lot of the world's tropics, where the same thing would be happening. So you'd see large populations probably finding it difficult to get through hot periods and agriculture would undoubtedly become tougher."
Neil Plummer from the Bureau of Meteorology says 2014 is likely to be another hot year.
"It's very early to say what will happen in 2014, but if you take the Australian context, only one of the last ten years has actually been below average temperature. So given we've got this warming trend and we do have this influence from greenhouse gases, then I think there is the expectation that we're likely to head towards another warm year in 2014.
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