Bhubaneswar: With mercury on the rise at several places in Odisha and as heat wave condition is very likely to prevail over several districts of the State till May 3, at least 31 places witnessed maximum (day) temperatures above 40 Degrees Celsius, today.

Baripada recorded the highest maximum temperature at 44.8 Degrees Celsius, followed by Angul (44.3), Boudh (44.1), Bhawanipatna, and Talcher each (44.0), Titilagarh (43.5), Dhenkanal (43.2), Bolangir, Keonjhar, Malkangiri, Nayagarh, and Nuapada each (43.0), Jharsuguda, and Sambalpur each (42.9), Cuttack, and Jajpur each (42.5), Rourkela (42.4), Bhadrak, and Kendrapada each (42.0), Sonepur (41.9), Hirakud (41.9), Sundargarh (41.8), Paralakhemundi (41.7), Balasore, Bargarh, and Phulbani each (41.4), Bhubaneswar (41.3), Khordha (41.0), Chhatrapur (40.8), Chandbali (40.7) and Jagatsinghpur (40.6).

Temperature forecast: No large change is likely in the maximum (day) temperature during next three to four days at many places over the district of Odisha.

People are to take precautionary measures while going outside during the day hours between 1100 Hrs IST and 1500 Hrs IST, a special bulletin of IMD regional centre advised.