UPDATED 8:54am — Melbourne is having a scorching end to the week with temperatures in the greater city expected to hit 43 degrees today.

For downtown Melbourne Friday’s high is 42 degrees. For other suburbs, like Epping and St Albans, a high of 43C is forecast.

Melbourne Airport is also expected to reach 43C today. 

The highest ever Melbourne temperature recorded in the shade was 46.4 Â°C on 7 February 2009.

Saturday’s high will be “just” 28C and the days following climb back up into the low to mid 30s.

The heatwave shifts east this weekend. NZ will also get some of this heat, with Nelson in the upper South Island forecast to reach 33 degrees on Monday (with the heatwave losing some energy as it moves over the cooler Tasman Sea).

– Off the chart heat in Australia on Friday / Weathermap.co.nz

– WeatherWatch.co.nz