Bhubaneswar, May 23: Frequent power cuts have added to the woes of residents, who are already battling extreme weather conditions of heat and humidity in the morning and thunder squall in the evening.

Residents complained about unscheduled power cuts happening for the past two days at various places across the city, including Saheed Nagar, Acharya Vihar, Nayapally, Unit-VIII, Khandagiri, Ghatikia and Palaspalli. "The intermittent load-shedding started after 10am. This is very painful in such hot and humid weather conditions," said Palaspalli resident Panchanan Mishra.

Sources in the Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha said the power cuts were taking place due to maintenance work at various places in the city. "Electrical wires and transformers have been damaged at many places due to the consecutive occurrence of thunder squall. The repair is going on, and the situation will shortly be normal," said the power body's superintending engineer Sukant Swain.

On the other hand, the weather today took an extreme turn in the city with high humidity level in the morning and squall with gusty surface wind speeding up to 50kmph in the evening. The maximum temperature in Bhubaneswar remained at 40.5 degrees Celsius today. Titilagarh and Bolangir recorded 46 degrees Celsius - the highest temperature in the state.

According to the Regional Meteorological Centre here, the maximum humidity level in the city today rose to 93 per cent during the morning hours, while the same remained around 70 per cent in the evening, leaving people sweating.

Talking to The Telegraph, Met director Sarat Chandra Sahu said such weather conditions occurred due to a mix of wind from two different parts of the country. "The south-westerly wind from the southern region of the country is bringing in moisture, while hot and dry air continued to flow from the north-easterly region," said Sahu.

He said that due to the moisture-bound south-westerly wind, people in the coastal pockets have been experiencing humid and squally weather, while the people in the interior pockets were being exposed to soaring temperatures because hot and dry north-easterly wind. "This weather condition will continue across the state till the end of this month," he said.

In another development, the weather condition has led to the rise in diseases such as indigestion, dehydration, cough, rashes, back pain and headache.

"Summer brings with it several medical problems, most common among them being indigestion and dehydration. People should ensure that they drink enough water and try to avoid eating outside," said physician Sobhan Rath.