A family enjoys the spring weather on Melbourne's St Kilda Beach on November 8, 2020. (File photo: AFP)

This year is on course to be one of the three warmest ever recorded and could even top the record set in 2016, the United Nations said Wednesday.

"2020 has, unfortunately, been yet another extraordinary year for our climate," said Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the UN's World Meteorological Organization, as it unveiled its provisional 2020 State of the Global Climate report.