Australian state scorches through hottest October on record, as El Nino bites

The Australian state of Victoria is on track for its hottest and third driest October on record, as the effects of a severe El Nino weather pattern take hold.

Bureau of Meteorologist climatologist Jonathan Pollock said on Wednesday that the difference between the average and the actual maximum temperatures across Victoria this month was 6 degrees Celsius, smashing the previous record of 4.98 degrees Celsius which occurred in October 1914.

Rain has also been a rare occurrence with the state averaging 15mm of rain across the state so far this month, only twice dropping below this level in 2006 and 1914.

Mildura, in north western Victoria experienced seven days over 35 degrees Celsius this month already, 11 degrees above average for October.

"We actually had a pretty cool start to spring, but we have well and truly blown that away with October," Pollock told The Weekly Times on Wednesday.

Another weather forecaster, Rod Dickson, said that while there was is some rain forecast for the coming weekend, Victoria has only received around 17 percent of the normal rainfall figure in October.

With 48 weather stations around the state, all of them have failed to register average levels of rainfall this month including Bairnsdale in the state's east which has received 50.6 mm but still sits at only 84 percent of the October average.

Twenty-one of the weather stations sit under 10 percent of the normal October figure with only three days remaining in the month. Enditem