The mercury has once again begun rising in Odisha after witnessing a slight drop for a few days. Heat wave swept across the State with 18 places recording day temperature of 40 degrees Celsius or above on Saturday.
As per the latest bulletin released by the Indian Meteorological Department's regional centre in Bhubaneswar, Sonepur emerged as the hottest place in the State with the temperature rising to 44.02 degrees Celsius during the day time followed by Jharsuguda and Sundargarh with 44 degrees Celsius.
Similar, Balasore, Angul, Sambalpur, Hirakud, Talcher, Bhawanipatna, Bolangir, Titilagarh, Malkangiri, Boudh, Paralakhemundi, Jajpur, Bargarh, Deogarh and Nuapada recorded 40 degree Celsius and above.
While the temperature recorded in Khordha was 37.5 degrees Celsius in the daytime, the Capital city Bhubaneswar recorded 37.6 degrees Celsius daytime temperature.
On the other hand, Cuttack recorded 37.8 degrees Celsius and the highest daytime temperature recorded in Puri was 33.2 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, Gopalpur recorded the lowest daytime temperature in the State with 31.4 degrees Celsius.
Earlier, the regional weather agency had predicted the return of sweltering heat wave conditions. As the weather office reported, the temperature will witness a rise by 3-4 degrees Celsius.