The Odisha government on Sunday announced summer vacation will begin for school students on April 25 given the intense heatwave conditions in the state.
It has also been decided that from April 22 to 24 (Monday to Wednesday), the timings of morning classes for the children will be from 6:30 am to 10:30 am.
The decision covers all schools -- government, government-aided and private, the state government said in a press release.
Earlier, the state had ordered the 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.
According to a bulletin of IMD's Bhubaneswar centre, nine places in the state recorded a maximum temperature of 43 deg C or above during the day. Till 2.30 pm on Sunday, the highest temperature recorded in the state's Jharsuguda and Keonjhar towns was 43.6 degrees Celcius.
Six other places have recorded a maximum temperature above 40 deg C. They were Hirakud (41.8 degrees Celcius), Rourkela (41.8), Sambalpur (41.7), Bhubaneswar (41.6), Chandbali (41.6) and Balasore (40.5 degrees Celcius), IMD scientist Umashankar Das said.
The temperature was 41.6 deg C at both Bhubaneswar and Cuttack cities.
India experiences intense heat
Intense heat swept large swathes of India on Sunday, with maximum temperatures settling four to six degrees Celsius above normal in many areas.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), maximum temperatures hovered between 42 and 45 degrees Celsius in parts of Odisha and Rayalaseema, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Parts of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Uttar Pradesh recorded maximum temperatures between 40 and 42 degrees Celsius.
Maximum temperatures settled 4 to 6 degrees Celsius above normal in many parts of Gangetic West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha; and 2 to 4 degrees above normal in parts of sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry & Karaikal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha and Telangana, the IMD said.
The ongoing heat wave is the second heatwave spell this month. The first spell scorched parts of Odisha, Jharkhand, Gangetic West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
- With PTI inputs