The world experienced its hottest decade in the 10 years to 2019, three global agencies have confirmed.
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Last year was also the second hottest year ever recorded for the planet, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. This was backed up by the UK Met Office and NASA.
The global average temperature was 1.05 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the UK Met Office said.
It comes as the Bureau of Meteorology revealed last week that 2019 was the hottest and driest year in Australia since records started, more than a century ago.
Australia's temperature was 1.52 degrees above average and the average rainfall total in 2019 was 277 millimetres - the lowest on record.
The bureau blamed the record temperatures and and drought for the bushfires that have ravaged parts of the country.
Canberra also recently broke an 80-year record with the nation's capital recording a temperature of 44 degrees on Saturday January 4. It broke a 1939 record by 1.2 degrees.
The consistent breaking of records has been described as a "frightening reality" by Australian National University climate scientist professor Will Steffen.
"If it seems like we are reporting on a new climate record being broken week after week, it's because the planet is getting hotter and hotter," he said.
Mr Steffen pointed to the recent smoke haze that has blanketed Australian cities.
"While bushfire smoke has drawn a toxic veil over Australian skies, the scientific evidence is as clear as day," he said.
Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said the record heat was a warning.
"The experts have been telling us for decades that it will get hotter and weather events will get more extreme," she said.
"The fires, the heat and the smoke must serve as a massive wake up call. We must heed the warnings. To protect Australian communities we must phase out coal, oil and gas, the drivers of climate change."
The warmest year on record was 2016 where temperatures were 1.11 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
From the decade to 2019, the five warmest years were recorded from 2015, Dr Colin Morice of the Met Office Hadley Centre said.
"Our collective global temperature figures agree that 2019 joins the other years from 2015 as the five warmest years on record," he said.
"Each decade from the 1980s has been successively warmer than all the decades that came before. 2019 concludes the warmest 'cardinal' decade (those spanning years ending 0-9) in records that stretch back to the mid-19th century."