SOME south-east Queensland spots have seen their driest and hottest year on record, weather bureau data shows.
The extreme conditions are in step with the rest of the country, with the bureau's annual climate statement showing 2019 was both the warmest and driest year since national records began more than 100 years ago.
Australia's mean temperature last year was 1.52 degrees above average, making it the warmest on record since consistent national temperature records began in 1910. It surpassed the previous record of 1.33 degrees above average, set in 2013.
Meanwhile the national average rainfall total in 2019 was 277 millimetres, the lowest since consistent national records began in 1900. The previous record low was 314 millimetres set during the Federation drought in 1902.
Several weather bureau stations received their lowest annual rainfall totals on record, including Harrisville, Carneys Creek, Cunninghams Gap and Maroon Dam in the Scenic Rim and Greenbank and Loganholme in Logan.
Loganholme also recorded its highest annual mean temperature on record.
The Redlands fared slightly better, but Capalaba received its lowest annual rainfall since 1990.
The weather bureau's head of climate monitoring Karl Braganza said the record warm and dry year was one of the key factors influencing fire conditions in large parts of the country.
"2019 was consistently warm, but it was book-ended by periods of extreme heat," Dr Braganza said.
"January last year was the warmest month Australia has ever recorded, while just a few weeks ago in December, we saw the Australia-wide record hottest daily average maximum temperature broken multiple days in a row.
"At the same time, rainfall deficiencies across large parts of eastern Australia have continued to increase, unfortunately exacerbating both drought conditions and the current bushfires."
Dr Braganza said there were multiple factors influencing Australia's weather patterns in 2019.
"Most of this year, Australia's climate has been dominated by a very strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole, which acted to both warm and dry Australia's landscape, particularly from around the middle of the year.
"We also saw the influence of a rare sudden stratospheric warming event high above the south pole, which acted to push our weather systems northward and compound the warmer and drier than average conditions over southern Queensland and New South Wales during spring, amplifying the fire weather.
"The other key factor at play is that Australia's climate has warmed by more than a degree since 1910, which means very warm years like 2019 are now more likely to occur, while the trend in recent decades has been for drier winter and spring seasons in the south."
The bureau's annual climate statement came as Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended his record on climate change, saying his government had always made the connection between climate change and extreme weather conditions.
He had come under fire from various parties as the bushfire crisis unfolded.
Temperatures are likely to remain warmer than average over the rest of summer and Dr Braganza said the outlook did not indicate wetter than average conditions over drought and fire affected parts of eastern Australia.
"But with the likely return of the monsoon by mid-January for northern Australia, it raises the chance that we could see some periods of higher rainfall move south in the coming months," he said.
"It's important the community remains vigilant to the risk of more heat and fire days this summer, particularly given how dry the country has been over the past 12 months."
