Parts of state to hit 40, hottest Melbourne day since January on way
Parts of Victoria are tipped to reach 40 degrees as a heatwave sweeps across the state ahead of a cool change late Friday.
Melburnians are set to sweat through a scorching few days with a very warm night in between, with Thursday set to be 35 degrees and Friday tipped to reach 38 degrees.
"We do expect temperatures to rise quite steadily on Thursday morning as moderate to fresh northerly winds develop across the Melbourne area. It's sitting on 15.7 just before 7am, and it will be around 31 degrees by midday before getting up to 35 degrees around about 4pm or 5pm," said Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tom Delamotte.
"It does look like a hot night. Those moderate to fresh northerly winds continue overnight for Melbourne and keep the temperature up, continuing to drag warm air from inland across the city.
It will only dip to 25 degrees overnight on Thursday before the mercury starts to rise again.
"There's a hot night on the way tonight then it's warming up to a max of 38 degrees on Friday afternoon ahead of a weak cool change don't expect it to move through until late Friday night."
There is a very high fire-danger rating for western and northern parts of the state on Thursday, including the Mallee, Wimmera, South West and Northern Country districts.
"The maximum temperature peaks about 40 degrees through northwest parts today and 41 degrees on Friday," said Mr Delamotte.
Mildura is set to hit 40 degrees on Thursday, and 41 degrees on Friday.
If Melbourne reaches 38 on Friday, it will be the hottest day in the city since January 28 this year.
A change will move through on Friday before a mild weekend.
"We do see that weak cool change move through late Friday and early Saturday morning, with that change moving in there will be a build up of cloud and we might see some showers and thunderstorms move through on Saturday."