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Melbourne weather: Summer was relatively mild, but get set for a scorcher of an autumn

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Australia is in for a hot, dry March, with heightened bushfire risk and the possibility of more heatwaves.

With autumn starting on Wednesday, you can expect warmer days and nights and less rain than usual, the Bureau of Meteorology's climate outlook says.

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Indian summer set for Melbourne

For the first time in 12 years Melbourne hasn't had a single 40-degree day during its summer.

Take some solace in the fact there was not a single day over 40 degrees recorded in Melbourne during summer, and we had a slightly cooler February than usual.

"Generally February was a bit cooler than usual – not a big deviation from the usual though," Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Keris Arndt​ said.

"We did not see any 40 degree days in February, you often see one or two. We did not see one all summer. The hot weather stayed a bit further north."

February's average maximum temperature was 25.6 degrees, with an average low of 14.8 degrees. On the hottest day the mercury reached 36 degrees.

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That put the month bang on the average for the bureau's long-term temperature trends.

The bureau's weather station at Olympic Park measured 40.2 millimetres of rain for the month, nearly all which fell on a single day – February 6.

That was slightly less rainfall than usual for the month.

The bureau is forecasting a hot, dry autumn with below-average rainfall and heightened fire risk.

There might even be some heatwaves, Robyn Duell​, the bureau's senior climatologist, said in the forecaster's autumn climate outlook.

 "In recent weeks the central and eastern tropical Pacific ocean has warmed. And climate models suggest this warming is likely to continue.

"Rainfall is likely to be below average for much of Australia.

Temperatures are expected to be warmer than average, and heatwave and bushfire risks are raised in many areas."

In part the bureau is putting that down to climate change – 22 of the past 26 years have featured below-average rainfall in south-east Australia as the climate steadily warms.