Australia Weather News

It's hot and windy across Victoria and if a fire starts up, it will be very hard to stop, warns Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner.

It's been 44 days since there has been any significant rain across the state and temperatures are forecast to be 10 degrees Celsius above normal for this time of year.

Temperatures are tipped to be in the mid-30s in the south and in the high 30s along the Murray River in the north.

However the main reason for concern is the winds, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning for damaging winds, gusting 60-70 kilometres per hour, with peak gusts of 90 to 100 kilometres per hour.

"If a fire was to start and we weren't able to get it in that initial attack, it will run and it will get away from the fire suppression efforts fairly easily," Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley told ABC Radio Melbourne.

"It's dry, it's hot, it's windy. The winds will remain strong into the night and overnight and [on] Sunday morning we'll wake up with temperatures of 28C in the morning.

"That's a concern if we've got fires running and hot conditions overnight and the wind remains."

There have already been 31 minor fires across the state which were quickly brought under control.

The key areas of concern are from Mildura to Warrnambool and Melbourne to Echuca.

Then on Sunday morning a strong change will move through.

"That'll bring strong westerly wind gusts throughout the day, particularly for southern and coastal areas where we'll see wind gusts up around 90-100kph and probably reaching up to 110kph about the coast," said Rod Dickson, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology.

The CFA has been working on the Seaview fire, near Warragul, in eastern Victoria all week, and Mr Lapsley said he was confident they will be able to hold the fire.

The fire is currently about 254 hectares in size and is burning close to the communities of Allambee, Cloverlea, Yarragon South and Ellinbank.

"That was a fire we found extremely difficult to control because it was so dry and it was spotting through the forest areas," Mr Lapsley said.

"I'm very confident we'll hold it."

Extra firefighting staff are on standby and total fire bans are in place for all regions except the Gippsland and north-east fire districts.