The arrival of the monsoon across northern Australia may spell good news for authorities battling fires across eastern Victoria.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Michael Efron said the smoke haze was likely to persist, ahead of a band of showers and storms, from the middle of the week.
He said temperatures were expected to rise into the high 30s, particularly across the north
"Due to a lack of strong winds, the fire danger doesn't get that high," Mr Efron said.
"On Wednesday, we will see some showers and thunderstorms across northern and north-western parts of the state.
"If they develop, they will be quite slow-moving, so they could deliver some locally heavy rain and even the chance of some damaging wind gusts."
A trough crossing the state would bring unsettled conditions.
"That does enhance the storms, through some of the central parts of the state, with falls of between five and 15 millimetres of rain," he said.
"Again those storms are quite slow-moving
"Heavy rain, at times, is quite likely; it will be quite tropical, with some humid air, moving across the state."
Late on Wednesday, south-westerlies would start to pick up, dropping the temperature and clearing the smoke from central Victoria.
"With that trough moving east on Thursday, that focus of the showers and storms does shift to eastern Victoria, and those fire-affected areas, and we could see falls of between five and 10mm of rain.
"There could be some locally higher falls, as well."
But he said the rain may bring hazardous conditions, across the fire grounds, with bare earth meaning debris could be washed across roads.
There was also the potential for flash flooding.
More showers and storms were predicted for the weekend
"Towards the end of the weekend, we do see a trough persist over eastern Victoria, helping to drag moisture in from the Tasman Sea," he said.
Mr Efron said there could then be some potentially useful falls, across the east.
"Certainly, for much of this week, the fire danger will remain suppressed, across much of the state," he said.
The monsoon had "well and truly" kicked off across parts of tropical Australia in recent weeks.
"Any northerly or north-westerly winds we do get tend to drag that moisture down to Victoria, which would also suppress the fire danger," he said.