Unprecedented summer heatwaves and unseasonal warm spells resulted in Australia's third warmest year on record in 2014, a Bureau of Meteorology climatologist says.
But the near-record warmth in 2014 is fast becoming the norm, climate statistics suggest.
The record for the warmest year was set only in 2013.
Seven of the warmest 10 years in Australia, since reliable records began in 1910, occurred in the past 12 years, and 29 out of the past 35 years have been warmer than average.
The BoM's annual climate statement, released on Tuesday, showed the 2014 annual mean temperature - minimum and maximum temperatures combined - was 0.91C above the long-term average (set from 1961 to 1990).
Maximum and minimum temperatures were 1.16C and 0.66C above the long-term average, respectively.
Last year ranked among the top four warmest years on record in Australia, except for the Northern Territory.
BoM climate monitoring manager Karl Braganza said a relative lack of prolonged cold weather and six heat events affected the result for 2014.
These included a savage mid-January heatwave in the southeast and the warmest spring on record across the continent.
"Over the last three years, in fact, we've seen a sequence of rolling heatwaves throughout the year and a lack of cold weather," Dr Braganza told AAP.
Prolonged drought, which allows more sunshine to heat the land, and a rise in global temperatures of about 1C in the past 100 years added to the warmth, he said.
However, heavy rain in WA helped balance the drought. The national mean rainfall in 2014 was 478mm, 13mm higher than average.
Dr Braganza said climate scientists believe human-induced climate change is occurring.
"It's a combination of natural variability and the background trend, an increase of about 1C in global temperatures in the past century, and that's due to human-induced global warming.
"Typically, when you start to go close to records or break records, that's telling us the global warming signal and natural variability are pushing in the same direction, so that's why we're not surprised (by the 2014 climate data)."
Preliminary data from January to November 2014 collated by the World Meteorological Organisation suggests 2014 may also be the world's hottest year since consistent meteorological records began in 1880.
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