Residents of Odisha are in for a tough time as the heatwave, which took the temperature beyond the 43-degrees mark at nine towns on Friday, is set to intensify.

A squall and dust storm accompanied by light rain lashed some parts of Delhi on Friday evening, bringing the mercury level down.

In Odisha, Angul was the hottest place at 44.7 degrees Celsius. The temperature also crossed the 40-degree mark in at least 16 places, with the Met office forecasting intensified heatwave.

Titlagarh recorded a maximum temperature of 44.2 degrees, while it was 44.1 degrees at Hirakud, followed by Sambalpur (43.6), Balangir and Bhawanipatna (43.5), Talcher (43.2) and Jharsuguda and Malkangiri (43).

Khammam, Nalgonda and Ramagundam recorded the highest maximum temperature of 43 degrees each in the state, followed by Adilabad 42.5, Bhadrachalam and Hanamakonda at 42 degrees each.
Parts of north India, Telangana and Bihar can breathe easy with rain or thunderstorm forecasts for Saturday.

Temperature stabilised
The mercury levels in Gujarat have stabilised around 40 degrees over the past three to four days, with Bhuj in Kutch district and Amreli in Saurashtra region recoding a high of 40.4 degrees in the past 24 hours.

Interestingly, some parts of Amreli had received rain on late Wednesday night.

Showers in R’than
Light to moderate showers were witnessed at some places in Rajasthan. Churu remained the hottest on Friday, recording a maximum of 42.6 degrees. “A few more instances of sandstorms are expected to lash Rajasthan  anytime soon,” a Met department source said.