The mercury refused to climb down in Sambalpur as this western Odisha town sizzled on Friday afternoon with the temperature hitting the season’s highest of 46.7 degree Celsius. The town has been experiencing extreme hot weather for the past four to five days with the temperature hovering above 45 degree Celsius.
It recorded 45.5 degree Celsius on Wednesday and climbing upwards touched 46 degree Celsius on Thursday. Meteorological office sources said if the cloud condition remains unchanged then the temperature will further up in the coming days. “Sambalpur today recorded 46.7 degree Celsius, this year’s highest,” said K Singh, the met officer of Sambalpur.
Thursday’s heat took its toll too. A daily-wage labourer of Sambalpur’s Modipara area died allegedly because of sunstroke taking the town’s heat wave toll to 6. The labourer was identified as Gukul Naik (45). He collapsed near his house after returning from work on Friday afternoon. He died on the spot.
But the district administration is yet to confirm the death. “We have so far received only one complaint of such death from Maneswar area. But it is difficult for us to confirm the death because it was cremated before post mortem. But we have sent the report to the government”, said Jayanarayan Dash, the district emergency officer of Sambalpur, on Friday.
