Western Odisha continued to reel under intense heat wave with Titlagarh recording season’s highest temperature of 47 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
Titlagarh, known as hottest place in the State, touched 47 degrees after a gap of 10 years. It was also the hottest place in India on Thursday. The tiny western Odisha town has crossed 46 degrees on a couple of occasions this month.
For more than a fortnight now, normal life in most western Odisha towns including Titlagarh has been badly hit. Titlagarh is followed by Sonepur where daytime temperature was recorded at 46.2 degrees. According to Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre, temperature at Sonepur has been consistently breaching 45 degrees.
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In fact on Thursday, nine towns mostly in western Odisha recorded daytime temperature above 45 degrees.
The mercury hit 45.6 degrees at Hirakud and Talcher while Jharsuguda was 45.3 degrees. Angul recorded 45.1 degrees and Bhawanipatna, Sundargarh and Bolangir were at 45 degrees.
According to office of Special Relief Commissioner, reports of 66 sunstroke deaths have been received from different sources.
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The SRC informed that on enquiry, death in one case has been confirmed to be due to sunstroke. While the administrations found other reasons in 17 cases, the remaining 48 cases were under enquiry.
“The heat wave situation will continue till April 23 and thereafter it may slightly drop. But temperature is likely to go up in coastal region from the weekend. The hot wind blowing from north-western direction has been impacting the situation in Odisha,” said S. C. Sahu, Director of India Meteorological Centre, Odisha.
Titlagarh, known as hottest place in the State, touched 47 degrees after a gap of 10 years