The Odisha government on Wednesday announced the closure of all schools in the state from April 18 to 20 in view of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) heatwave forecast.

In a press statement, the School and Mass Education Department said the government has decided to close down all schools including those run by the government, government-aided and private for three days in view of prevailing heatwave conditions and rise in day temperature.

As per IMD’s forecast, the temperature is likely to rise gradually by 2 to 4 degrees Celsius at many places during the next two days. The temperature is expected to cross the 45 degrees Celsius mark in a few places in Odisha from April 18 to 20.

Baripada town in Mayurbhanj district was the hottest place in the entire country on Tuesday with a temperature of 43.6 degrees Celsius, weather scientist Umashankar Das said.

In a bulletin, IMD's Bhubaneswar Centre said heatwave conditions would prevail at some places in the districts of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak, Balasore, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Khurda, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Nayagarh, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Angul, and Boudh on Wednesday.

Hot and humid weather conditions would prevail at one or two places over the districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Khurda, Nayagarh, Ganjam, and Gajapati, it said.