No wonder we sweated. Record heats up.

Andrew Mathieson
The region sweated through a temperature record this week, according to a local weatherman.
Geelong Weather Services’ Lindsay Smail said Wednesday was the city’s hottest day on record for the first week of October.
The day peaked at 31.5 degrees just after 2.30pm, smashing the old mark of 27.7 from 1985.
Mr Smail marvelled at the new record.
“It’s never been that hot before since April,” he said.
“Everything they’re saying about bushfire danger and a long, hot summer looks as though it’s dropping into place, unfortunately.”
The jump in temperatures follows the hottest September day for 19 years last month when the region baked in 29.6 degrees.
Mr Smail predicted a bleak month ahead for the region’s dwindling water storages after a dry winter.
“So far we’ve had nothing and we may get a little bit (this week) but the whole of the month is looking pretty bad at the moment,” he said.
October was normally the wettest month of the year, with Geelong averaging 62mm of rain for the month.
Mr Smail said local rain was only 60 per cent of the average, including in the region’s catchment areas.
Mr Smail described long-range forecasts as “very pessimistic” until the end of the year.
The Bureau of Meteorology was predicting a 35 per cent likelihood of above-average rain and a 60 per cent likelihood of above-average temperatures.
“Sometimes you can have little blips occur and can end up with a heavy downpour and everybody thinks the forecast is wrong but, overall, for the average we’re still on track,” Mr Smail said.