Just after 5pm, the temperature hit 37.3 degrees, exceeding the forecast maximum of 36 degrees.

If the temperature gets just a little bit higher than the predicted maximum, it will put the ACT on track to have six days over 37 degrees in a row for the first time ever.

And it would be the third time in the past 80 years that Canberra has had more than five days in a row over 37 degrees. One of the other two was earlier this month.

Temperatures for the weekend are expected to stay between 38 and 39 degrees.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Sean Carson said there might be some relief on the way for Tuesday, but it wouldn't last.

"Probably Monday night heading into Tuesday we’re currently forecasting 30 degrees and my feeling is they could even drop further as we get closer to that," he said.

"But it'll be short relief and then more hot temperatures to follow. The change expected is only a shallow change ... Until we get a significant rainfall event, that hot air is likely to come back again.

"It's looking like a fairly hot fortnight."

The latest heat-wave has continued a trend of extreme weather for the ACT region.

Mr Carson said the recent heat waves had followed a few years of extreme weather events for the territory.

"2013 for Canberra was its hottest year on record, just behind 2009, which was also the year of the Victorian bushfires," he said.

"In terms of days above 40 degrees, we’ve had 13 in total since records began in the 1930s. Nine of those have occurred since 2007. Six have occurred in the last two summers."

ActewAGL's planned water and power outages, which would have taken place during the heatwave, have been modified or cancelled to accommodate for the extreme temperatures.

The ACT Emergency Services Agency has also put its extreme heat management plan into place, which begins whenever there were three or more days forecast over 35 degrees.

It is largely focused around warnings to the public to keep cool and hydrated.