Sweltering heat to continue for few more days
Chuadanga logs 42.7°C, the highest temp this season
With this season's highest temperature recorded yesterday, people across the country are bearing the brunt of searing heat and this situation may continue for a few days more.
Yesterday's highest temperature was recorded in Chuadanga, 42.7 degrees Celsius, at around 3:00pm and this is the country's highest in this season, said Jaminur Rahman, in-charge of Chuadanga Met Office.
"Extreme heat waves are continuing over the district. The temperature may continue and there is no chance of rainfall in the next few days," he told The Daily Star.
Bangladesh yesterday set an all-time heatwave record as the Met Office recorded 24 days of heatwave during the current month of April breaching the previous 23 days of heatwave in 2019.
A weather bulletin of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) last evening forecast that the prevailing heatwave is likely to continue till at least Sunday evening.
Rainfall may take place in the northeastern and southeastern part of the country on Tuesday, it added.
The government has decided to reopen all secondary schools, colleges, madrasas, and technical education institutions from Sunday amid the ongoing heatwave.
Yesterday, the lowest temperature of 20.6 degrees Celsius was recorded in Tetulia of Panchagarh, the bulletin added.
People, especially those who belong to low-income groups like day-labourers and rickshaw pullers, are in dire straits due to the continuous intense heat.
"It appears that my skin is getting burnt by sun rays when I drive my vehicle. That is why, I cannot operate it for a long time amid such extreme a heatwave," said Mustafizur Rahman, a battery-run auto-rickshaw driver at Damurhuda bus stand area in Chuadanga.
"I'm the lone earning member in my family. We'll have to starve, if I cannot earn. So, I am compelled to go out of home for work defying such scorching heat," said Md. Kamal Hossain, a rickshaw puller at Pabna's Ishwardi upazila where the temperature was recorded 42.4 degrees Celsius yesterday afternoon.
"Life has become unbearable due to such blistering heat. We don't know how long we will survive amid such a condition," said cobbler Bimol Sutradhar, who runs his business on a footpath at Dhaka's Bailey Road area.
[Our correspondent from Pabna and a correspondent from Chuadanga contributed to this report]