CANBERRA, Jan. 6 -- Australian Bureau of Meteorology confirmed in its annual report released on Tuesday that Australia has experienced its third-warmest calendar year in 2014 since national records began in 1910.

The bureau's Assistant Director for Climate Information Services Neil Plummer said 2014 was characterized by frequent heatwaves and warm spells, and a notable reduction in cold weather.

"Much of Australia experienced temperatures very much above average in 2014, with mean temperatures 0.91 degree Celsius above the long-term average," Plummer said in a media release of the bureau.

"This follows the warmest year on record in 2013, which was 1. 20 degree Celsius warmer than average."

He said that particularly warm conditions occurred in spring 2014, which was Australia's warmest spring on record.

"El Nino-like effects were felt in drier and warmer conditions in much of eastern Australia during 2014."

In 2014, prolonged rainfall deficiencies continued for inland and southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales, although in the country as a whole, the rainfall was near average for the year, with 478 mm.

Six significant heatwaves and warm spells occurred, including one of southeast Australia's most prolonged heatwaves in mid- January.

A number of major bushfires occurred during January and February, with particularly destructive fires in Victoria and South Australia.

Four tropical cyclones made landfall during 2014, with tropical cyclone Ita the most intense; crossing the coast near Cooktown as a category 4 system, bringing rainfall totals in excess of 300 mm.

A stormy spring, with severe thunderstorms striking Brisbane in late November, causing flash flooding, very large hailstones and destructive winds.

An East Coast Low off the central and southern New South Wales coast in August caused storm damage and brought more than 100 mm of rain to some parts of the coast.

Sea surface temperatures around Australia were unusually warm, about 0.49 degree Celsius above average for the year to November.

Nationally, Australian temperatures have warmed approximately one degree since 1950, and the continued warmth in 2014 adds to this long-term warming trend.

Globally, preliminary estimates by the World Meteorological Organization has 2014 on track to be one of the hottest, if not the hottest, on record.

According to the report, 2013 was the hottest year on record, and 2005 the second hottest. In the last 35 years, 29 years have been hotter than average, while only six years have been below average.

"It is worrying that these sort of records are now being broken so regularly. The impact of climate change on these trends is very clear. Climate change is making Australia hotter and more prone to bushfires," said climate expert and Australian National University researcher Professor Will Steffen.

"Another in Australia's string of Angry Summers is underway. Severe bushfires are raging in South Australia and Victoria following the hottest Spring on record and the hottest November on record," said the professor, who is also the Councilor of Climate Council, an independent non-profit organization formed to provide Australians with clear, easy to understand facts on climate change.

"An obvious implication of hotter temperatures is worsening bushfire conditions. Over the past four decades, climate change has increased the occurrence of high fire danger weather in the southeast - exactly the type of conditions that have led to the early January fires in South Australia and Victoria," the professor said.

The latest bushfires in South Australia have left at least 26 homes and 41 outbuildings destroyed or badly damaged, and the numbers were expected to rise as more damage assessments were made.