The 2009 State of the Climate report issued yesterday by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and British Met Office brings together for the first time nearly 50 independent records of global trends covering 10 aspects of climate change, from temperature rises over land and sea and increases in ocean heat content and sea level, to decreases in snow cover, the size of glaciers and the area covered by Arctic sea ice.

Australia's extreme conditions, such as the massive east coast dust storm, Victoria's deadly Black Saturday bushfires and flooding on the NSW mid-North Coast, are all featured in the report as examples of climate events attributed to global warming.

Australia's maximum temperatures were generally above average in 2009, with the biggest gap between 1.5 and 2 degrees experienced in inland NSW, southern Queensland and to the west of Alice Springs. Minimum temperatures were also above average through most of the country and Australia's average rainfall for the year had been 458mm 2per cent below average. The warmest year on record for Australia was 2005, but the report predicts this year may prove to be hotter.

Head of climate monitoring and attribution at the Met Office, Peter Stott, said greenhouse gases were ''the glaringly obvious explanation'' for the 0.56 degree rise in average global temperatures over the past 50 years.

''Despite the fact people say global warming has stopped, the new data, added on to existing data, gives us the greatest evidence we have ever had,'' he said. ''When we follow decade-to-decade trends using different data sets and independent analyses from around the world, we see clear and unmistakable signs of a warming world.''

with The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, London

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