Bhubaneswar: With mercury crossing 45 degrees Celsius mark yesterday, the State Government announced summer vacation for all school students of the State from April 25.
The schools run by government, private and aided ones will remain closed in entire Odisha from April 25, State Information and Public Relation Department said in a tweet today.
The schools will function in the morning hours from 6.30 AM to 10.30 AM for three days from tomorrow (April 22 to 24).
Earlier, the state had ordered closure of all schools in the state for three days from April 18 to 20 after a severe heatwave situation during which the temperature rose to above 45 degrees Celsius in the state.
Today Till 2.30 PM, the highest temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius was recorded at Jharsuguda and Keonjhar while six other places recorded a maximum temperature of above 40 degrees Celsius. Those places are, Hirakud (41.8), Rourkela (41.8), Sambalpur (41.7), Bhubaneswar (41.6), Chandbali (41.6) and Balasore (40.5),
In a bulletin, the IMD said day temperature would be 40°C or above at many places over the districts of interior Odisha and likely to be above normal by 3 to 5°C over some districts during the next 2 days.
However, due to likely interaction of middle tropospheric westerly trough with lower level moist air from Bay of Bengal , Meteorological conditions becoming favourable for moderate thunderstorm activity with lightning, gusty surface wind, wind speed reaching 40 to 50 kmph and scattered to Isolated rainfall over the districts within next 3-4-days, it said.
The Met Department has issued Heatwave Orange Warning (be prepared) Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Boudh, Nuapada, Sundargarh, Bargarh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Sonepur, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Angul, Khurda, and Cuttack districts for tomorrow.
Hot and humid weather would prevail in some places of Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati on April 22, it said.
Besides, thunderstorm and rainfall would occur over the districts of Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati, Sonepur, Boudh, Nuapada, Balangir, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Angul, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj during the day.