After rain, storms to sweep, then heat wave

Bangladesh has been noticing a change in weather patterns for the past few days. Although it is expected to be generally hot at the end of March, mercury has dipped due to storms that have recently hit different parts of the country.

In the country, three months--March, April and May--are considered as the pre-monsoon season by the Met office. Rains/thundershowers accompanied by the gusty winds usually occur during these three months. Sometime, thunderclouds come from the Himalayan basin and mature in the sky of Bangladesh. Then it starts raining.

But the Met office says, this time there has been heavy rainfall as rains/thundershowers accompanied by the gusty winds occurred in the month of March. It was totally different from other times.

“If we look at 1948 to 2022, we can see that thunderclouds usually rise up to 10-12 kilometres on average and sometimes up to 18-20 kilometres. But this time, thunderclouds have not gathered higher altitude. As a result, rainfalls look like the monsoon,” Meteorologist Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told BBC Bangla.

The Met office predicted moderate storm in the coming days. At the same time, the wind speed will also be strong, it said, adding that a glimpse of which can be seen in the capital on Friday night. In the evening after Iftar, the wind speed in the Uttara-Airport area was 74 kmph, which was stronger than usual.

There is also a chance of hailstorm and thundershowers along with the storm for the next two days, he said.

As of Friday afternoon, the website of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department says that the maximum temperature in Dhaka on March 31 was recorded at 31 degrees Celsius and the minimum was 19 degrees Celsius.