Girls take guard against the scorching sun in Patna on Wednesday. Patna witnessed the hottest day of the season on Wednesday as the maximum temperature stood at 43.4 degrees Celsius — five notches higher than the normal. The Met office has claimed that the city would continue to face heatwave conditions at least in the next couple of days but respite is on the cards by the weekend. “We are expecting a cyclonic circulation to form over central Bihar due to which maximum temperature can fall down by two or three degrees by Sunday,” said Ashish Sen, director, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Patna. Text by Piyush Kumar Tripathi, Picture by Ashok Sinha