Bhubaneswar: Odisha remains firmly in the grip of a biting cold wave, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday predicting that the severe chill is likely to continue across several parts of the state for at least another two days.
Warning has been issued for the districts of Angul, Jharsuguda, Dhenkanal, Sundargarh, Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada till January 17 morning.
The minimum temperature may witness a gradual rise by 2-4 degree Celsius thereafter, it added.
Recent days have seen minimum temperatures plummeting significantly, with hilly areas like G Udayagiri recording some of the season’s lowest readings at around 3.7°C on January 14 morning. Plains districts have also felt the intense cold, with mercury frequently dipping into single digits in Jharsuguda, Angul, and Rourkela, prompting yellow alerts for cold wave in multiple locations including Cuttack, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Dhenkanal, Angul, and Jharsuguda.
In the last 24, G Udayagiri in Kandhamal was again the coldest place in the state at 5.2°C, followed by Rourkela at 6.6°C, Phulbani, the district headquarters of Kandhamal, at 7.3°C, Semiliguda in Koraput at 7.7°C, Jharsuguda at 7.8°C, Angul and Dhenkanal at 8.6°C each, Kirei in Sundargarh at 9.3°C, Keonjhar at 9.4°C. Most of these places recorded a slight rise in the minimum temperature since the previous day.
However, mercury plummeted to 11.8°C in Bhubaneswar compared to 12°C on January 14. Similarly, Cuttack recorded 10.4°C this morning against 11.4°C the previous day.
