New Delhi, April 22: The heat wave on Thursday claimed seven more lives, raising the death toll across the country to 67, even as overnight rains in many parts of the northern belt provided relief to people from hot conditions for another day.
Five fresh casualties were reported from Orissa, where the coal belt of Talcher sizzled at 45.9ºC followed by Sambalpur (45.2ºC) and Hirakud (45ºC).
Jharkhand too was in the grip of intense heat as two people died due to sunstroke. The maximum temperature in the steel city of Bokaro rose up to 47.2 degree Celcius, followed by Palamau 44.9ºC, Jamshedpur 44.6ºC and Dhanbad 44.2 degrees.
Meanwhile, people in Punjab and Haryana had respite from hot conditions for another day as mercury stayed below the 40ºC at most places except Hissar which recorded a maximum of 40.5ºC.
Amritsar, where the maximum fell by several notches to settle at 32.36C on Wednesday, recorded a high of 36.7 C on Thursday, followed by Ludhiana 37.6ºC, Chandigarh 38ºC, Karnal 38.4 C, Ambala 38.5ºC and Patiala 39.2ºC.
Most parts of Jammu and Kashmir experienced rainfall for another day though there was no fresh snowfall. Srinagar witnessed its maximum temperature dipping five notches below normal to settle at 15.5ºC.
The minimum settled at 7.8ºC. Jammu recorded a maximum and minimum temperature of 34.4ºC (normal) and 20.6ºC respectively. Overnight rains kept the weather pleasant in Himachal Pradesh with capital Shimla recording a maximum of 24.8ºC.
Sundernagar received an overnight rainfall of 35 mm, Kalpa 26.7 mm, Dharamshala 5.4 mm and Shimla 1.6 mm.
Temperature remained at tolerable level in other parts of the hill state too. Solan recorded a maximum temperature of 30.5 degree Celsius, followed by Sundernagar 33ºC and Dharamsala 33.4ºC. —PTI