The temperature in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha, reached 44.3 degrees Celsius on Monday, which is 8.3 degrees higher than normal. The Meteorological (MeT) office reported that 31 places in the state had temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius or more. When temperatures in the coastal area are above 5 degrees Celsius of the normal temperature, it is considered a severe heatwave condition. The weather office issued an orange warning for heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in some districts, including Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, and Bargarh on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A yellow warning was also issued for some districts, including Sundergarh, Keonjhar, and Mayurbhanj, stating that heatwave conditions are very likely to prevail in one or two places during the same period. Due to the hot weather, normal life across the state, including the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, was severely affected. The IMD forecast predicted that the similar weather conditions would continue for two more days.
The IMD reported that the day temperature on Monday breached 45 degrees Celsius in two places, with Sambalpur being the hottest place in the state at 46.1 degrees Celsius, followed by Hirakud at 45.6 degrees Celsius and Sonepur at 45 degrees Celsius. Other places that recorded high temperatures were Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh, Titlagarh, Nayagarh, Talcher, Angul, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Nuapada.
The humidity level in Bhubaneswar was also high at 88 percent. The weather office predicted that there would be no significant change in maximum temperature (day temperature) in many places in the state during the next five days and that it could be above normal by 4-7 degrees Celsius in some places. Thunderstorms with lightning were also likely to occur in some districts, including Malkangiri, Koraput, and Nabarangpur.
