Barring parts of Sylhet and Chittagong divisions, the country continues to simmer under an intolerable heat and humid weather that pushed the mercury up to 37 Degrees Celsius in the capital yesterday with the day’s highest maximum temperature of 39.6C recorded in the south western Chuadanga. The head turned city life intolerable for many trying to cope with the unusual heat and humid weather that is not likely to go away for another couple of days, till the arrival of relief on the wings of a nor’wester bringing rains and winds to cool. But that may not happen before Thursday, coinciding with the Bangla New Year’s Day. Rain storms are likely to occur first in Sylhet and Mymensingh divisions on Thursday and then, stray rains may contribute in washing away the heat and humidity in this city of concrete jungle for some time, Abul Kalam Mallick, a meteorologist at the Dhaka Met Office said. The heat was confined to the city in the absence of shades from trees and the wetlands that dotted its streets and surrounding areas once. Dhaka had its highest maximum temperature of 42.3C recorded on April 30 in 1960.The country’s highest maximum temperature in history, of 45.1C, was recorded  in Rajshahi on May 18,1972 while Jessore saw 44.5C recorded on April 15,1954, the met records showed.