Canberra copped its hottest summer on record this season, made worse by a series of heatwaves around the capital, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
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The upcoming Autumn was also recently predicted to be drier than average, following the record-breaking summer.
This summer, Canberra Airport recorded mean maximum temperatures 3.8 degrees hotter than the long-term averages for summer.
Tuggeranong also saw mean maximum temperatures 2.4 degrees hotter than the long-term averages for summer.
Senior climatologist Blair Trewin said Canberra Airport recorded temperatures significantly above average in December.
"Clearly it was an exceptionally hot summer which you probably knew already," Mr Trewin said.
"The record average summer maximum isn't all that old, it was in the summer two years ago."
Mr Trewin said the last decade had been overrepresented when it came to beating summer records.
This included the summers of 2018-19, 2016-17, 2013-14, 2009-10, 2017-18 respectively.
The heatwave Canberra sweated through in January was also a new record, with four consecutive days of 40 degrees or above from January 15 to January 18.
Mr Trewin temperatures were locked in over most of south-eastern Australia at the time by a high-pressure system over the Tasman Sea.
He said the other notable feature this summer was the significant amount of dust events in Canberra, particularly in February.
"That's larger reflecting the very dry conditions further north in NSW," Mr Trewin.
The closest dust monitoring station to Canberra is in Wagga Wagga had recorded 48 dust hours in January, well above the national average that month of 38 hours.
Dust blanketed the capital on February 12, blown in by winds from the south-west of NSW.
Summer rainfall was above average this summer, with Mount Ginini in Canberra's west recording 113.2 millimetres of rain in three days in December, but also 28.4mm in 30 minutes on January 22.
"Quite unusual to have above average rainfall in a hot summer. Most of the rainfall the ACT got was in thunderstorms," Mr Trewin said.
"Whereas most of NSW had a very dry summer. The southern and central tablelands did particularly quite well."
But while December was an absolute soaking, Mr Trewin said January and February combined would still have come close to the capital's summer rain average.
But February was the drier month, according to the bureau.
Canberra Airport saw a summer total of 210.4mm, 123 per cent of its summer average with 23 days of rain, close to average for summer.
The mean minimum temperatures were also above average by one or two degrees.
If Tuggeranong had trouble sleeping at night over summer, it was because the mean minimum of 14.9 degrees was the highest summer mean minimum on record.
Canberra Airport saw mean minimums of 14.8 degrees, its second-warmest after 1980-81.
"It has been a dry summer and a dry year in much of inland NSW," Mr Trewin said.
