Odisha witnessed its third longest heat wave spell in the past one and a half decades in April this year. As per the data shared by the IMD Bhubaneswar scientist, Umashankar Das on his X handle, the 2024 April saw the heat wave spell continue from April 14 till April 30th. The heat wave was witnessed for as many as 16 days in succession in April 2024. In the past 15 years since 2009, the longest heat wave spell was witnessed in the April of 2010 with a continuous streak of 23 days. Second on the list is the April of 2016, when the state witnessed a heat wave for as long as 21 days. Similarly, capital city Bhubaneswar witnessed the longest spell of maximum day temperature above 40 degrees in the month of April for 16 days from April 15 till April 30th. The data available since 1969 shows that the previous longest spell was of 10 days from April 6th to 15th back in April 2016. On the last day of April 2024, as many as three places from the state were among the ten hottest places in the world. While Baripada in Mayurbhanj became the second hottest place in the world with 46.4 degrees Celsius, Balasore and Bhubaneswar were the third and tenth hottest places, respectively. In fact, on April 30, 2024, Baripada witnessed its all-time high temperature of 46.4°C. Its earlier record stood at 46.1° C recorded on April 21, 2010.