In some parts of the State tempertaures will soar into the thirties, an ominous sign of the El niino system the Bureau has predicted is coming.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicts Horsham will see top temperatures of 32 degrees on Saturday, 33 degrees on Sunday, 35 degrees on Monday and 31 degrees on Tuesday.

The mercury is expected to hit 36 degrees on Monday in both Nhill and Warracknabeal.

Ballarat will be let off with milder days, its hottest days expected on Monday and Tuesday both with 29 degrees. The hottest October temperature ever recorded in Ballarat was 33 in the midst of the country’s longest recorded drought in 2006.

For farmers the warm temperatures come on the back of some of the driest winters recorded in parts of Victoria. Ballarat has endured seven consecutive months of below average rainfall.

Murra Warra farmer and Victorian Farmers Federation vice-president David Jochinke said there was no good news at all for the season.

“People are very nervous about what the heat will mean for the year,” he said.

“We had a tough season last year and at the moment it’s looking like it’s going to be hard to survive this one.”

Mr Jochinke said the heat would damage legumes’ ability to set seeds.

He said the heat would also cause grain in cereal crops to become pinched and yields to decrease while frost had also wreaked havoc on crops last week.

.“That’s if we get grain out of cereals at all,” he said. “This is typical weather of a strong El Niño unfortunately - frost and heat.”

Many farmers are now cutting failed crops for hay  and emergency services are also preparing for a warm weekend.

Country Fire Authority Grampians Regional Commander Mick Harris said he would not be surprised to see fires in the Wimmera at the weekend, especially coming on the back of a particularly dry winter with such low rainfall.

“The general message is that there’s an El Niño event happening, the Pacific Ocean is warming and that has a significant effect on the Australian environment and particularly Victoria,” he said.

“It means we will probably have a higher fire season and it will come in earlier.”

Mr Harris said this summer’s conditions would be similar to 1982 – the year before the big droughts started – and 1997 – when Victoria endured large fires in the Dandenong Ranges and the Mornington Peninsula.