YouTube/Andre Heath

Australia continued to burn with some areas such as Victoria hitting a record 46 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. Other towns registered 45C, while it was 40C in nine of the Bureau of Meteorology's forecast districts.

In Melbourne, the temperature reached 42.8C for four straight days of 40C. Stuart Coombs, duty forecaster of the Bureau of Meteorology, said it was the first time that Melbourne endured a similar heatwave since 1908 when temperature was above 40C for five straight days, making it the second longest run of 40s since the bureau begun monitoring the temperatures since 1835.

He warned there would be very little relief during overnight periods and that would make it a "very arduous spell of weather for people to get through."

The long, very hot summer has affected not only daily living but also the ongoing Australian Open as tennis fans were forced to walk in temperatures hovering over 40C because the tram tracks stopped on the line leading to the Rod Lave Arena.

Reports said the heat caused chaos for tennis fans as the tram tracks were severely damaged near Exhibition St which forced the diversion of routes 70 and 70a from 4 pm of Tuesday.

Yarra Trams, operator of the tram service, provided limited shuttle service.

At the same time, power outages caused traffic delays at level crossings in Brunswick, while the Upfield line between North Melbourne and Coburg were suspended. Affected were the level crossings in Park Street, Union Street, Brunswick Road, Dwason Street and Albert Street.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that temperatures would go beyond 40C across the state in the next four days at 43C on Wednesday, 41C on Thursday and 40C on Friday.

Elsewhere, it was 42.9C in Geelong, 43.2C in Mildura, 42.5C in Horsham and 40.3C in Warnambool on Tuesday.