With an average daily maximum temperature of 31.6 degrees since December 1, it has already been the second-hottest summer on record for Perth, 0.4 of a degree below the mark set in 1977-78.

To break the record, the average maximum daily temperature in Perth for the next 13 days will have to be at least 35.1 degrees.

While there are several warmer days forecast this week, the expected average maximum for the next seven days is 34.3 degrees.

The city was on track to comfortably break the record, but has seen its coolest start to February for nine years, with an average maximum this month of 29.5 degrees. The average maximum for February is 31.3 degrees.

While narrowly missing out on the longest dry spell on record, Perth could still have its driest-ever summer.

Just 0.2 millimetres of rain - the minimum required to get a reading in the Bureau of Meteorology's Mt Lawley rain gauge - has fallen to date, on February 7, 78 days after the previous downpour.

The driest ever summer was in 1974-75, when 0.8 millimetres fell. That was the same season Perth went without rain for 83 days, its longest dry spell.

Perth Airport last week broke its 62-year-old dry spell record, and has now gone 88 days without rain.

The next weather station to approach the mark is the Pearce RAAF base, which has also gone without rain for 88 days, 15 short of its record.