Melburnians are set to swelter through the city's hottest day in more than a year while the northwest of the state is on high alert for bushfires.
The temperature is set to hit 38C in Melbourne on Monday - its hottest day since January 31, 2020 - while Horsham, Mildura, Shepparton and Swan Hill are forecast to reach 40C.
A total fire ban has been declared for the Mallee, Northern Country and Wimmera, with the danger rated as severe across the three regions.
The fire danger in Central, North Central and South West regions is considered very high, while it is high in the North East and Gippsland regions.
The forecast has prompted V/Line to enact its extreme heat timetable across the whole of Victoria on Monday, with services along the Bairnsdale, Bendigo, Echuca, Geelong, Gippsland and Swan Hill lines affected.
Chris Arvier, a senior forecaster for the Bureau of Meteorology, said the forecast was about 10C above average.
He said Victorians won't see relief from the hot weather until well into the night.
"A change is coming through in late in the evening and it will be a much cooler day tomorrow before the warm weather returns on Wednesday," he told AAP.
Melbourne is forecast to reach 34C on Wednesday before mild conditions return.
Emergency services minister Lisa Neville said Monday's weather would be "challenging in a number of ways", with the Mallee, Northern Country and Wimmera regions at high risk until about 7pm.
"The reality is that we are likely to see fires today," Ms Neville told reporters.
"We have pre-deployed our aircraft into those areas at highest risk. We've got incident teams already in those areas and and all our firefighters and their crew and other support people on readiness for fires."
She added that a cool change was coming but wouldn't hit Melbourne until 11pm.
Australian Associated Press
