Thunderstorm, Gusty Wind To Lash Odisha Till May 5; Red Alert For Heatwave Continues

Bhubaneswar: Amid the prevailing heatwave conditions, Odisha is also likely to experience thunderstorm with lightning accompanied by gusty surface wind speed reaching 30-40 kmph till May 5.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday issued red warning of heatwave to severe heatwave condition for districts of Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Angul, Dhenkanal, Boudh, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Balangir, Nuapada, and Kalahandi. Orange warning of heatwave was also sounded for Deogarh, Bargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, and Cuttack. There was also a forecast for heatwave conditions in Nayagarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, and Kandhamal.

The Met office also warned of thunderstorm with lightning accompanied with gusty surface wind speed reaching 30-40 kmph at one or two places in Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi , Nayagarh, and Khurda till 8.30 am on Thursday.

The red warning of heatwave continues for one more day with orange and yellow alerts on heat & thunderstorm activity for the subsequent three days. “The day temperature is likely to remain 3-6°C above normal during the next 4-5 days due to prevailing northwesterly/westerly dry air and high solar insolation. People are advised to take precautionary measures while going outside during peak hours of the daytime between 11am and 3pm.”

Light to moderate rain will continue in North and South Odisha on May 6-7, it added.

It further said that the heatwave may persist in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack for two and three days, respectively. Following which, partly cloudy sky with thunderstorm activity is likely also bring the temp slightly down in the twin cities of Odisha.

The prolonged heatwave has persisted for 16 days straight in Odisha and, with this forecast, may equal the previous longest spell of 20 days in parts of the state recorded from April 7 to 26 in 2016. Bhubaneswar had also seen such long dry spell from April 16 to May 5 in 2014.

The current spell of heatwave days is also the longest in last five years (from 2020 to 2024) with the previous longest spell of 12 days recorded in June 2023, according to director of Bhubaneswar Met Centre Manorama Mohanty.

HEATWAVE WARNING FOR NEXT 4 DAYS