At 46.5°C, even a short walk outside feels like an oven blast

Raipur: Chhattisgarh continued to reel under an intense heatwave on Monday with Rajnandgaon emerging as the hottest place in the state at a scorching 46.5°C, with the India meteorological department warning that heatwave conditions are likely to persist across parts of central and south Chhattisgarh for the next three days.

According to the IMD’s Raipur weather bulletin issued, dry weather prevailed across the state while several districts continued to experience heatwave conditions. Raipur city recorded a maximum temperature of 45.1°C — 2.6 degrees above normal — while its outskirts at Mana airport touched 45.7°C. Durg recorded 45.2°C and Bilaspur 45.1°C.

Even traditionally cooler northern districts offered little respite. Ambikapur recorded the state’s lowest minimum temperature at 24.7°C.

The weather department said there was “no large change” in maximum temperatures across the state in the past 24 hours, but warned that heatwave conditions are likely to continue at several places in central Chhattisgarh and isolated pockets of southern parts over the next three days.

The IMD, however, has also forecast isolated light rainfall, thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds at a few places, triggered by an upper air cyclonic circulation over south Bihar and a trough extending from Bihar to coastal Andhra Pradesh via Jharkhand and Odisha.