Environment Canada has quietly released its climate report for 2010, confirming that it was the hottest year on Canadian record books.

National temperatures exceeded average values by a whopping 3 C, the warmest since record-keeping began in 1948, says the report, posted on the department's website Monday.

"All of the country was above normal, with most of Nunavut and northern Quebec at least 4 C above normal," says the report, that highlights 2010's northern heat wave on its map in red.

"An area over southern Alberta and Saskatchewan was the only part of Canada with close to normal temperatures this past year," it adds.

While the report makes no mention of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, higher temperatures have long been predicted as a result of the rising levels of emissions to the atmosphere.

Climate change models predict Canada -- and the North in particular -- could undergo some of the most pronounced warming on the planet if emissions are not slashed.

Monday's report does say that Canada is warming. Of the 10 warmest years on record, four have occurred within the last decade, and 13 of the last 20 years are listed among the 20 warmest.

Add it all up and the average national temperatures been above normal since 1997.

Climatologist Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria says Canada is one of the first countries to release final numbers for 2010, but says he wouldn't be surprised if 2010 turns out to have been the warmest year on record globally.

He also notes that 3 C above normal is remarkable.

"These are rather large numbers," Weaver said, noting that temperatures were significantly higher than normal in 2010 despite "prognostications" from climate change skeptics who have been predicting the planet will cool because of changes in solar activity.

While the temperatures were extraordinary, Monday's report notes that when it comes to precipitation, Canada experienced a normal year in 2010, 0.4 per cent above normal. The wettest year was 2005, 13.4 per cent above normal, and the driest year was 1956, 7.3 per cent below normal.