Days of burning hot weather continue. Melbourne remains smoke hazed. The fires still rage in North East Victoria and on the road to Rutherglen huge clouds of smoke appear in the distance.

At night the mountains are aglow.

Towns in the district remain at the mercy of these fires. Winds are expected to increase this afternoon when a change sweeps through Victoria. More than 400,000ha have been burned. The loss of wildlife is staggering with the pygmy possum, which is found in alpine and sub alpine regions being pushed close to extinction.

Since February, 1983 - the month of the Ash Wednesday bushfires - Melbourne has not had three 40-degree-plus days in a month.

Yesterday, the city fell just 1.6 degrees shy of breaking the 20-year weather record after the temperature reached 38.4 degrees, despite a forecast top of 40.

Melburnians awoke to a relatively cool and hazy morning, as north-easterly winds brought bushfire smoke into the city.

It was 20 degrees at 9am, 25 at 10am and 29 by 10.30am, leaving many wondering whether the meteorologists had got it right.

Even those at the weather bureau had started to question whether the expected top of 40 would be reached.

A sea breeze gave the city a reprieve late yesterday afternoon, but the weather bureau said it was temporary and the cool change would not arrive until 6am today, as forecast, with up to five millimetres of rain. "It's more than we've had for a long time," Mr Ryan said.

The weather bureau has forecast a top of 25 today, after an overnight low of 23. The temperature is expected to drop below 20 degrees by late afternoon. The bureau has also forecast extreme fire danger in the north central, northern country, north-east, alpine, west and south Gippsland and the East Gippsland districts. The CFA has declared a total fire ban for the north-eastern and eastern total fire ban districts.