The India Meteorological Department (IMD), however, on Friday said that the minimum temperature is likely to rise by 2-3 degrees in the state during the next 3 days due to dry weather conditions with no large change thereafter.

The weather agency has also forecast shallow to moderate fog in Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Angul and South Coastal Odisha till 8.30 am on Sunday.

Notably, very dense fog restricted visibility to 50 metre in Nayagarh this morning. Dense fog was also seen in Puri while Paradip experience shallow to moderate fog.

Traffic crawled in state capital Bhubaneswar as dense fog reduced visibility to 100 metres and so also in Cuttack. Khurda, Paradip, Chandbali, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal and Angul were also covered by a thick blanket of fog.

Very dense fog was seen in Nayagarh for the second consecutive day while Bhawanipatna, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh and Baripada reported shallow to moderate fog.

The weather agency has attributed the foggy morning to an active cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal off the coast of Odisha.

It had earlier predicted dense fog at one or two places in Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, and Jharsuguda till 8.30 am on Thursday. Shallow to moderate fog very at one or two places in remaining districts of the state.

Amid the foggy conditions, the state also saw a slight rise in the night temperature with Koraput being the coldest at 9.2 degree Celsius, followed by Semiliguda also in Koraput districts at 11.1 degree Celsius and Kirei in Sundargarh at 11.4 degree Celsius. The twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack recorded 19.5 and 19.4 degree Celsius, respectively, 4 and 5 degrees above normal.

The MeT office has forecast no large change in the minimum temperature during next 4-5 days. Odisha is likely to witness shallow to moderate fog another two days along with light to moderate rain.

According to the MeT office, light to moderate rain\thundershower may occur at a few places in Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, and at one or two places in Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, and Jagatsinghpur till 8.30 on Friday. Light rain\thundershower may occur at one or two places in Balasore, Bhadrak, and Kendrapada districts during the subsequent 24 hours.