Wildfires raged in parts of two Australian states as authorities warned high temperatures and strong winds could worsen conditions into the weekend.

Out of control fires broke out in South Australia and Victoria, according to the states’ fire services. Total fire bans have been declared across parts of the states including Melbourne, the nation’s second-largest city. Western Australia state issued a bushfire warning for areas that take in the Perth region.

Temperatures have risen over central Australia this week and hot air is being pushed south by winds, the Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement. It forecast temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across the southern part of the country.

“The worst conditions are concentrated in South Australia and Victoria,” Alasdair Hainsworth, assistant director for hazard prediction at the weather bureau, said in the statement. The heat combined with winds “will present very challenging conditions for firefighters for any fires that may break out.”

There were no reports of property damage so far.

The nation’s hot, dry climate makes wildfires a major risk in the southern hemisphere’s summer. In February 2009, bushfires across Victoria state killed 173 people and destroyed 150 homes in the worst blazes in Australian history.

Wildfires in February 2014 destroyed about 20 properties in Victoria, while fires in January of that year burned 52 homes on the eastern fringes of Perth.