Bhubaneswar, April 23: Heatwave conditions prevailed with the maximum temperatures crossing the 45°C mark in as many as eight places across the state today.
Titilagarh recorded the season's highest temperature at 48°C today.
Incidentally, the west Odisha town has remained the hottest place in the entire country for the past four days, said a weather bulletin issued by the India Meteorological Department.
The town had recorded a maximum temperature of 47.5°C yesterday.
The number of sunstroke deaths at various parts of the state also continued to rise with reports of as many as 73 deaths this season.
Two deaths have been confirmed to be due to sunstroke, said a source in the office of special relief commissioner.
One victim was from Angul and the other from Balangir.
Of the 73 cases, probe has completed in 24 cases. Twenty-two of the 24 cases were found to be because of other reasons and not heatwave.
Special relief commissioner P.K. Mohapatra today said that a sum of Rs 50,000 would be paid as compensation to the next kin of sunstroke victims from the State Disaster Response Fund.
"Nearly 1,000 water tankers have been deployed to cater to the needs of the people in the rural areas. We will deploy more tankers if needed," he added.
Director of regional meteorological centre Sarat Chandra Sahu said that the heatwave situation was most likely to continue across the interiors of the state till the end of this month.
However, the coastal belt may breath a sigh of relief with showers that are likely to accompany thunder squalls from April 26.
"Due to a flow of westerly wind, a few pockets in the coastal belt might receive light rainfall with heavy wind around April 26 which will continue till April 28. This may help in a dip in temperature by two to three degrees Celsius. But, the weather in the interior areas of the state are most likely to remain the same," said Sahu.
At 46.8°C, Talcher became the second hottest place in the state today, followed by Sonepur (46°C), Baripada (45.3°C), Balangir (45.2°C), Angul (45.1°C), Sambalpur (45°C) and Bhawanipatna (45°C). Bhubaneswar today recorded a maximum temperature of 41.5°C and Cuttack 41.2°C.
