Staff Reporter:
After record-breaking heat wave spell, Bangladesh gets respite from prolonged extreme hot weather event as much of the country already has witnessed heavy rainfall with thunderstorms for two consecu-tive days.
“Severe heat wave is unlikely to sweep over the country . . . but moderate to light heat wave may prevail in southwestern and northwestern regions of the country from mid-May,” Omar Faruq, meteorologist of Bangladesh Meteorological Department(BMD), told yesterday.
He said the entire country may witness heavy to very heavy rainfall along with thunderstorms (locally known Kalboishaki) from yesterday and it will continue till May 14 meaning temperature will continue to fall during the period.
On April 26, Bangladesh set all-time heatwave record as the Met Office recorded 24 days of heatwave breaching previous 23 days of heatwave in 2019.
“Twenty-three days of heatwaves were logged during two months of April and May in 2019, which were considered the prolonged heatwaves in the history of the country. But the April alone crossed the grim milestone setting new record of heatwave days,” BMD meteorologist Dr Abul Kalam Mallik said.
Explaining the three key indexes of hot weather – – heatwave, severe heatwave and very severe heat-wave, the BMD meteorologist said, “We consider temperatures above 36 degrees Celsius for at least two consecutive days as heatwaves while temperatures between 40 degrees and 42 degrees are severe heat-waves and temperature of above 42 degree Celsius is very severe heatwave.”
The weather expert said earlier, the western and northern regions — Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur of Bang-ladesh are considered heatwave-prone areas. Some south-western parts of Barishal division and Dhaka division experienced heatwave, he continued.
The Met Office recorded 34.6 degrees Celsius on May 6 at Jeshore while the temperature in Dhaka was recorded at 32.6 degrees Celsius during the same day.
Visibly for the first time the meteorologists acknowledged that the climate change phenomenon caused the erratic weather pattern with gradually expanding areas of heatwave, joining the voice with the cli-mate experts and activists.
