Allergy sufferers have been put on alert for thunderstorm asthma, with an ambulance leader warning conditions are akin to those before Melbourne’s deadly event seven years ago.

The peak thunderstorm asthma season is expected to begin on 1 October and run until the end of December.

With a hotter and drier spring forecast, Ambulance Victoria emergency management director Justin Dunlop said he has been advised conditions are “very similar” to when Melbourne experienced the world’s largest epidemic thunderstorm asthma event.

At the time, emergency services were overwhelmed and 10 people died. Among those affected were people with seasonal hay fever who had never had asthma.