Bhubaneswar: The capital city of Odisha on Monday recorded 42.2 degree Celsius, the highest ever temperature in the month of March since 1952.
Prior to this, the capital city had recorded the highest temperature of 42 degrees on March 30, 2014.
Talking to OTV, Dr Sarat Chandra Sahu, Regional Director, Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar said the trough line, which was formed over sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim and stretched up to north Odisha, has further extended to central Chhattisgarh through Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand and north interior Odisha.
“Since the trough line is only 900 metre from the surface level, there is a possibility of Norwester in the north Odisha districts of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore and Bhadrak by this evening. But as per the picture found in the Doppler radar, there is no indication of Norwester in these places,” he pointed out.
Sahu said compared to yesterday when wind speed was 25-30 kmph, the wind speed today was 15-20 kmph. “This has substantially brought down the average humidity level to about 19 percent which is favourable for the rise in day temperature. Besides, clear sky condition has also largely contributed to the rise in temperature,” he added.
Sahu further said the wind flow, which was blowing from the north-west or west direction yesterday, has changed to south-west direction today.
“Besides, the wind flow is gradually changing in a clockwise direction from the surface level towards the atmosphere from the south-west to north-west direction as a result of which the temperature has gone up,” he said, adding that the condition would continue till March 27.28.
As per the evening Met release, apart from Bhubaneswar, temperature remained at 40 degrees and above in Angul (40.1), Balangir (40) and Titlagarh (40.5).
Besides, temperature hovered around 37-39 degrees in Balasore (37), Chandbali (39.7), Cuttack (39), Baripada (37.6), Jharsuguda (39.5), Keonjhar (36.7), Sambalpur (39.2), Sundergarh (39), Hirakud (39.6), Talcher (39.4), Bhawanipatna (39.7), Phulbani (37) and Sonepur (37.8).