FAST CLIMATE FACTS
* 2019 was Australia's warmest and driest year on record, with temperatures 1.52degC above the average.
* The previous driest year was in 1902, and the hottest in 2013, when temperatures were 1.33degC above the average, compared to 1.52 degC above average last year.
* There were heatwaves in January and December, with high temperatures recorded across much of the country.
* It was also the warmest year on record for NSW and Western Australia; and one of the top 10 warmest for Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
* It brought the highest mean maximum temperatures on record for Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart and Sydney.
* Much of the country was affected by drought.
SIGNIFICANT CLIMATE EVENTS
* Severe tropical cyclone Veronica caused major flooding in the Pilbara region in northern Western Australia in March.
* A significant lack of rainfall across WA's southwest.
* Darwin had a late monsoon for both the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons.
* Unusually late tropical cyclones hit in May, with Lili in the Top End and Ann in Queensland.
* Queensland's Gulf Country, Townsville and large parts of the state's west flooded from January to April, killing of hundreds of thousands of livestock.
* The southeast corner of Queensland was hit by severe storms in November and early December.
* Bushfires stretched from southern Queensland to eastern NSW from September, in what was the beginning of a horrific fire season.
* NSW was affected by severe storms in late November.
* Further south, bushfires raged in Gippsland and northeast Victoria from summer to autumn, and from spring through December and into the new year.
* Rainfall in the Gippsland region was severely low, and parts of the inland southeast felt their coolest mean minimum temperatures on record in August.
* Bushfires tore through remote bushland across Tasmania from summer to autumn.
* In South Australia, the lowest rainfall on record was recorded between July and December, however Lake Eyre/Kati Thanda received its most significant filling since 2010/11.
Australian Associated Press
