Bhubaneswar: The people of Odisha heaved a sigh of relief after temperature came down sharply both in the interior and coastal districts on Saturday following rain and thundershower in most places on Friday afternoon under the influence of Kalabaisakhi (Norwester).
As per information given by local Met office here, rain and thundershower lashed 15 places in the state on Friday afternoon with Cuttack recording the highest rainfall of 18 mm followed by Dhenkanal with 3 mm. Bhubaneswar had 1.7 mm of rainfall.
The Met department has predicted that the temperature will rise again in the state in the next two days. It also said a trough line has formed over North Bihar and across Chhattisgarh through Jharkhand. Under its influence, rainfall at some places in interior and north Odisha would occur in the next 72 hours after which temperature would rise again in the state from May 5 onwards. The heat wave would continue till the end of May, it added.
A Met release this evening said barring four places, temperature remained under 40 degree Celsius in most places in the state on Saturday.
While Sonepur recorded the maximum temperature at 44 degrees, the three other places where the temperature went up to 40 degrees and above were Sundergarh (41), Talcher (40.8) and Bhawanipatna (40.5).
Temperature in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, which was over 40 degrees yesterday, came down by about 4 degrees today with 38 and 39.9 degrees respectively.