Bhubaneswar, April 7: The Beatles track Here comes the sun and I say it’s alright no longer seems tolerable to city residents.

Summer has hit early and it has hit hard with “green” Bhubaneswar topping the Celsius charts consistently for the past week.

In the first week of April, the mercury has already crossed the 42-degree mark – five degrees above normal for this time of the year – and the cloudy evening sky of the last couple of days has been but a disappointment.

The state government, too, is feeling the heat and has reiterated its demand to declare heat wave as a natural calamity to enable sunstroke victims to get compensation. The searing heat wave will continue for at least three more days and the possibility of the mercury soaring higher is quite low, said the weatherman.

Statistics available with the Regional Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar revealed that the maximum temperature in April has touched 42 degrees only twice in the last decade – in 2009 (42.8 degrees) and in 2010 (43.6 degrees). Met officials attributed the rise is temperature to the westerly wind coming from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

“The heat wave conditions are likely to persist for another two to three days. However, thunderstorms are likely to occur at a few places. Rain is likely from next week,” said director of Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar, S.C. Sahu.

Not only Bhubaneswar, many other places in the state are also reeling from heat wave conditions. As many as 11 places, including Bhubaneswar, recorded a maximum temperature of more than 40 degrees Celsius today.

Though the maximum temperature hovered around 38 degrees on April 2, the mercury leapt suddenly by four degrees, making life miserable for city residents. The maximum temperature of this season was recorded on April 5 at 42.2 degrees.

Streets donned a deserted look for the third consecutive day as most of the residents opted to remain indoors.

“This is only the beginning of April and the blazing sun has made it difficult to venture out of home. It looks like we are headed for a very cruel summer,” said Prabhat Behera, a local resident.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has set up seven water kiosks in various parts of the city, which are witnessing a huge rush every day. Overall, 60-odd kiosks will be set up to tackle the heat wave conditions. The civic body had also decided to provide ice bags and oral rehydration salt sachets in the drinking water kiosks for primary treatment of sunstroke victims.

The city had experienced a hotter summer last year with Bhubaneswar recording an all-time highest temperature of 46.7 degree Celsius on June 5, beating the previous record of 46.5 degree Celsius on May 22, 1972.

Bhubaneswar, which used to be a cool place, is now witnessing a steady rise in temperatures over the last decade mainly because of large-scale construction activities and deforestation. “The city has virtually turned into a concrete jungle. Water bodies, which used to control the temperature, have also faced the consequences of rapid urbanisation. This has mainly accounted for the rise in temperatures,” said environmentalist Bijay Mishra.