Queensland experienced its warmest January on record and 2018-19 is on the brink of making the top 10 driest Australian summers since national rainfall figures began in 1910.
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The weather bureau said preliminary figures indicated that the 2018-19 summer would also be among the top five warmest on record for each state and territory.
Meanwhile, Queensland had already surpassed last year's mean temperature of 2.46 degrees above the long-term average after having a drier than usual January.
Brisbane had a record run of 16 days in a row at or above 32 degrees as well as its warmest mean maximum temperature on record.
The city surpassed the previous January record of five days ending on January 30, 2001.
The warmest of record for Brisbane was 31.9 degrees, which was 1.5 degrees above the long-term average of 30.4 degrees.
Brisbane's warmest day was 33.6 degrees on January 23 while the coolest day was on January 3 when the temperature reached 29.4 degrees after the city experienced the most rainfall earlier in the month.
The Bureau of Meteorology also predicted drier than average conditions for large parts of northern and eastern Australia with warmer than average conditions for the entire country.
BoM manager of long-range forecasting Dr Andrew Watkins said the 2019 autumn outlook was not the news many were wanting to hear.
"After a record hot December and January it won't come as a surprise that this summer will be our warmest on record, and apart from areas of northern Queensland, many locations fell short of their summer rainfall averages too," he said.
"Unfortunately, the outlook isn't giving a strong indication that we'll see a return to average or above average rainfall in many areas over the autumn period.
"The only exception is for parts of inland Western Australia."
Dr Watkins said the outlooks showed the warmer than average conditions would continue through autumn due to Australia's two main climate drivers in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
"(They) are currently in a neutral phase, meaning there's no strong influence from either," he said.
"But things have been warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean over the past month, so we are currently at El Nino Watch, meaning double the normal chance of an El Nino forming in autumn.
"We also know that 24 of the last 29 years have seen a drier than average start to autumn in south eastern Australia, due to a long term southwards shift of our weather patterns."
