The streets of Dhaka city turned deserted under a severe heatwave condition, when the mercury spurted to 39 degrees Celsius yesterday, the highest so far this season since the current spell of heat pushed the mercury upwards from April 6. The day was also the hottest in two years—on April 24, 2014, the mercury shot up to a record high of 42.2 degrees C, a little behind the highest of 42.3 degrees C recorded on April 30, 1960. This has made the April heat highest so far in the city, as the records of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) show.
However, the day’s highest temperature of 41 degrees C was recorded in Jessore, which still remained far behind the highest recorded maximum temperature of 45.1 degrees C recorded at Rajshahi on May 18, 1972.
The mercury is going upwards because rains have virtually eluded the country, barring the Sylhet region, after a wet spell in March, when the rainfall was 43 per cent more than the normal average.
Earlier, in the long-range forecast by the BMD experts for April, rains were predicted to be normal.
Ruhul Kuddus, a meteorologist at the BMD’s Dhaka office, told The Independent that the heat spell would continue till the rains wash it away. But that is not going to happen now.
The rains may finally come and deliver the much-expected and sought-for relief from the first week of next month, most likely on May 2 and 3, Kuddus said, quoting the BMD computer model.
Explaining why there is no rain, Kuddus said there was no presence of westerly winds that mate with easterly winds coming from the Bay of Bengal, lacing the air with moisture. The presence of moisture, however, was making the heat felt very much, in the form of perspiration, leaving normal life in disarray. The deserted streets in the afternoon were testimony to this.
It has driven away the ubiquitous rickshaws from some of the busy, usually crowded, points, where the tricycles pedalled by human feet ferry passengers every day. These include the Science Laboratory crossing towards New Market and Gawsia, where the city’s womenfolk congregate in late afternoons to purchase various titbits as well as apparel. These were virtually deserted at 3.30pm.
Even the front of the Basundhara City Mall, usually crowded with rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, and rows of cars inside its parking lot, was deserted, barring a few young people who were walking towards it to spend a cool afternoon inside the mall and movie theatre.
Even the ice-cream vendors on their pedal-driven rickshaw-vans were absent, as were the sellers of towels and the ubiquitous beggar children, who all preferred to pass the hot afternoon in the shade, waiting for the evening to arrive. But their prayers for a windy evening—as had occurred during the past few days—were not answered. The met office recorded winds blowing from the south and southwest, with speeds of 10 to 15 km per hour. But these did not soothe the scorched city; on the contrary, they only added to the humidity, making the heat even more unbearable.