When Robyn Kefford woke up at 5am in Melbourne's outer east this morning the first thing she smelt was smoke.
"I actually thought my house was on fire the smoke was so strong," the Lilydale resident said.
"My eyes are watering; my throat is sore. It's pretty intense."
After establishing her house was not on fire, Ms Kefford realised the smoke haze outside was most likely from controlled burns.
Several planned burns contribute to smoke haze
Since Friday, Forest Fire Management Victoria has conducted 23 planned burns, with 16 of them in the greater Melbourne area.
"So Warrandyte, Healesville, Millgrove, Cockatoo, Ferny Creek, around Marysville, and Reefton — we've been doing some larger burns in those areas and the smoke is drifting," chief fire officer Chris Hardman told Virginia Trioli on ABC Radio Melbourne.
"When we ignite the burns we do look at the forecast and we look at how the atmosphere will bend the smoke, and then generally overnight we get a thing called an inversion that comes in that holds the smoke down, and that's what's happened this morning."
Speaking on Monday morning, Mr Hardman said he was "very hopeful" the smoke would clear over the day as weather conditions changed.
"For those people that do have respiratory challenges and heart illnesses, of course, we always recommend that you stay out of the smoke and stay indoors where practical."
With numerous planned burns in different parts of the state, the air quality is variable across Victoria.
"The light northerly winds we've experienced over the last couple of days have brought some of that smoke down over the metropolitan area, but more extensively across southern parts of the state as well, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology Mark Anolak said.
"There is a possibility we could smell some smoke in the air."
To find out if there is a planned burn in your area you can visit the Vic Emergency website.
