Heat is on after the warmest recorded year globally in 2015

Australia’s fifth hottest year in history was stoked by the strongest El Nino in two decades.

Australia’s fifth hottest year in history was stoked by the strongest El Nino in two decades as heatwaves and bushfires ravaged the country throughout 2015, the Bureau of Meteorology annual climate statement says.

“The national mean temperature was 0.83C above average, with a number of notable heatwaves during the year and record-breaking temperatures from October to December,” the ­bureau’s Scott Power said.

The trend was not isolated to Australia, with the World Meteorological Organisation confirming 2015 is “almost certain” to be the warmest year globally since records began in 1880.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s manager of climate monitoring, Karl Braganza, said rainfall was well below average across the country, with Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and NSW tallying temperatures within their 10 warmest years on record.

“The year ended on a very hot and dry note as the influence of El Nino took hold in September,” Dr Braganza said.

“Drought conditions persisted throughout inland Queensland, southwest Western Australia and the southeast, including ­Tasmania.”

A sizzling spring — including the warmest October — caused significant agricultural losses as farmers fought drought, unseasonably early heatwaves and bushfires, especially in the south of the country, the report says.

GRAPHIC: The weather in 2015

It estimated crop losses in the order of $1 billion to $2bn in Victoria where low rainfall had hit South Gippsland dairy farmer Marian Macdonald hard.

“(Last year) was drier than our 72-year-old neighbour can remember,” Ms Macdonald said of her 200ha operation.

“It has been a very tricky time and we have had to call on a lot of different resources to come up with a plan that will help us to bounce back when conditions improve.”

Her family has been in the district since the early 1800s and Ms Macdonald bought the farm in 2008.

Since then, she has had to borrow back all the money she has paid on the mortgage to keep the farm alive in extreme conditions; South Gippsland experienced in the lowest 10 per cent of annual rainfall totals for the year, according to the report.

“I am hopeful for the future because the likelihood of an El Nino back to back is low but there is no joy at either end of the spectrum,” Ms Macdonald said.

“In 2011, we had three floods in 30 days and lost about $60,000 worth of cow tracks alone.”

The University of Melbourne’s David Karoly said El Nino con­ditions were likely to wane in the next few weeks, returning normal rainfall to eastern Australia but a changing climate would continue to increase the frequency and ­intensity of heatwaves across ­Australia “for many decades”.

“Global warming has added about 1C to temperatures across Australia over the last 60 years,” Professor Karoly said.

Research Fellow at the Australian National University Sophie Lewis said Australians should be prepared to “ slip, slop and slap” for another hot 12 months. “Since 2002, Australia has seen eight of its 10 hottest years,” Dr Lewis said.

“Our research from 2015 shows that record-breaking hot temperatures over the last 15 years outnumber new cold records by a factor of 12 to one.”