Titlagarh, the western Odisha town, recorded 47 degree Celsius, registering season’s hottest day on Monday.
Even as the daytime temperature was hovering around 40 degree Celsius in coastal Odisha, western pockets were reeling under heat wave conditions.
Hottest place
Titlagarh is known as the hottest place of the State where the daytime temperature regularly soars beyond 47 degree Celsius. On May 27, 1998, the tiny town recorded 49.5 degree Celsius. Titlagarh has a dubious record of experiencing over 50 degree Celsius in 2003.
Titlagarh was followed by Balangir that recorded a maximum temperature of 46.5 degree Celsius. The maximum temperature stood at 45.2 and 44.8 degree Celsius for other two western Odisha towns — Bhawanipatna and Sonepur respectively.
The mercury level stayed above 40 degree Celsius at 14 places in the State on Monday.
Deserted look
People preferred to remain indoors and roads wore a deserted look in the afternoon.
“The heat wave condition is likely to prevail till Wednesday. Clearer sky and hot wind blowing from the northwest direction are reasons behind heat wave conditions in interior pockets,” said S.C. Sahu, Director, India Meteorological Department, Odisha.
Mr. Sahu said rains or thunder showers could occur at isolated places in the State within next two days. This could bring down temperature by two to three degree Celsius.
“At present we are not in a position to predict the early arrival of monsoon,” he said.
