The annual State of the Climate report 2013 is a review of scientific data and weather events over the past year, compiled by 425 scientists from 57 countries.
The report looks at essential climate variables, much like a doctor checks a person's vital signs at an annual checkup, said Tom Karl, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center.
While Karl declined to give a diagnosis for the planet, he said the report shows some surprises but an ongoing trend that continues the warming pattern seen in recent decades.
"The planet, its state of the climate is changing more rapidly in today's world than in any time in modern civilization," Karl added.
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"Australia observed its warmest year on record, while Argentina had its second warmest and New Zealand its third warmest," said the report.
The Arctic marked its seventh warmest year since records began in the early 1900s.
Arctic sea ice cover was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979.
Meanwhile, Antarctic sea ice has been increasing particularly at the end of winter when it is at its maximum, about one to two percent growth per decade.
"This is a conundrum as to why the Arctic ice cover is behaving differently than the Antarctic," said James Renwick, associate professor in the school of geography at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.