Bhubaneswar, June 5: When Bryan Adams crooned Those were the best days of my life, back in the summer of ‘69, he obviously had no idea how oppressive the season could be in India. As the summer continues to blaze its way with extremes of heat and humidity, meteorologists have labelled it “abnormal” for this time of the year.

Maximum temperature hit 46.7ºC around noon in the capital beating all previous records. It was scalding, dry heat with hot blasts singing the people. An unusually low average humidity level of 21 per cent did not help.

Metro highlights Bhubaneswar’s heat woes, from skies without rain clouds to residential areas without power.

What the Met charts say: A measure of the weather extremities was the day’s minimum temperature, which didn’t dip below 28.5ºC. “This reading contrasted with the average June day temperature of around 38ºC says a lot about how Bhubaneswar is suffering,” said Met office director, Sarat Chandra Sahu.

The previous maximum temperature recorded in the city was 46.5ºC on May 22, 1972. For a June day, the mercury had last peaked to 46.3ºC twice — once on June 5, 1967 and then on June 12, 2005.

Met officials said the day’s discomfort index had not been worked out since the humidity level has been unusually low. “In the last two days, the humidity level has been hovering around 20 to 22 per cent and the week before that, it was 50 per cent.

However, this is quite low since the average humidity level for June normally is 70 per cent,” Sahu said.

Why it is so hot: The key factors are low minimum humidity, lack of rain and a strong northwesterly flow of wind that is bringing intense heat from parts of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The sluggish movement of the monsoon, which is expected to enter Kerala around June 6, could cause a corresponding delay in Odisha. In the absence of pre-monsoon showers, the city has turned into a cauldron.

According to weather scientists, the slowness of the monsoon is responsible for sub-normal moisture incursion into the air over the city, resulting in low humidity. During this time of the year, if minimum humidity is low, the surface of the earth heats up more easily through unrestricted solar radiation.

The northwesterly winds have been hotter than usual with Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand seeing maximum temperatures in the 45-47ºC range. On entering Odisha, these winds are further heating up the region through advection, a transport mechanism of heat by wind.

What Wednesday is likely to be: Though the temperature of Bhubaneswar might stay in the forties for another day or two, the all-time record is unlikely to be broken, Sahu said. “The mercury is likely to come down to 43 degrees on Wednesday,” he added.

There is little possibility of rain in the city, although a partial cloud cover in the morning might raise expectations of some relief from the heavens.

The Met office, though, has issued a warning that severe heat wave would prevail over several parts of Odisha in the next 48 hours. “The winds from the Arabian Sea is likely to hit Odisha coast after June 8 which would bring some respite against the scorching heat. Monsoon is expected to arrive towards the end of second week of June,” he said.

How power played truant: Frequent, unscheduled power cuts along with problems of low voltage have added to the woes of the residents.

“Today, I could not run the motor and water could not be pumped into the overhead tank. None of my family members could take a bath until late afternoon,” said Mamata Mohapatra, a school teacher.

The problem is due to one 40 MVA power transformer at Chandaka grid, Bhubaneswar, which has stopped functioning since last month.

However, officials at the Central Electricity Supply Utility said a new transformer has been fixed today. “We expect the problem of unscheduled power cuts to end from Wednesday,” said a Cesu official.