Friday's announcement came hours earlier than usual, and is the second Total Fire Ban day declared for the region this year.

"No fires can be lit in the open air between 00:01 hours on [18/03/2023] and 23:59 hours on [18/03/2023]," the Total Fire Ban declaration said.

"CFA advises people living in areas at risk of fire to activate their bush fire plan."

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Mark Gunning said Western Victoria was tinder dry, with no Autumn break expected, and Ballarat was looking at a high of 34 degrees with northerly winds up to 45km/h on Saturday.

"Tomorrow will be our most challenging day of the season in the west of the state," he said.

"There'll be a wind change expected Saturday afternoon and we'll have challenging conditions in the few hours leading up to that.

"There'll be unstable atmospheric conditions, which means we could have swirling winds.

"It could be a bad fire day if anything starts."

The fire danger rating will be "extreme", just one step away from catastrophic.

Mr Gunning said aircraft would be dispersed across the state, CFA headquarters would be staffed from early in the day - and volunteers were ready to respond.

"We've had no real significant rain so far this year," he said.

"A 40 per cent chance of showers is predicted for Sunday, but we don't have a lot of confidence in that rain."

In fact, Ballarat's forecast is for virtually no rain for the week ahead.

A long-range weather forecast from the bureau shows below-median rainfall is likely for almost all of the continent until June.

Maximum temperatures also have a greater than 80 per cent chance of being warmer than usual for most of Australia.

The Bureau said this was the result of several factors including gradually warming tropical ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific.

In the meantime, stubble-burn permits for Friday have been cancelled across Western Victoria. Permits are automatically invalid on TFB days.

"We need to make sure there are no existing fires in the landscape," Mr Gunning said

"We allowed farmers to start stubble burning a lot earlier than usual to allow for cancellations like this.

"It was a matter of giving the farmers a chance to do what they needed to do."

He also advised bushwalkers to think carefully.

"We encourage people to avoid high risk areas on days of Total Fire Ban, monitor the VicEmergency app and make sure they're aware of what's going on around them," Mr Gunning said.

"We also discourage use of machinery on days of high fire danger - but if you do need to use any engines near dry grass or crops, there is a legal requirement to have a nine-litre fire extinguisher and/or a firefighting knapsack on the machine.

"It also needs to be easy to access if something happens."

More information can be found at www.cfa.vic.gov.au

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