Summer is yet to make its presence felt across the country and the winter chill can still be felt late at night, which has baffled all, including meteorologists. The strange phenomenon is making people use light blankets or ‘kantha’ to keep themselves warm at night.
After the heavy rains between March 9 and 12, the weather pattern at this time of the year indicated that something was perhaps not going normal in this part of the world due to global climate change. “We need to study the situation,” said Mohammad Abdul Mannan, a senior meteorologist at the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) yesterday.
On March 9, the total amount of rainfall in Kutubdia was recorded at 3mm. The next day it was 96mm; on March 11, it was 76mm. On March 12, the rainfall was only 7mm.
“We need to study to find out the changes in weather patterns at this time of the year,” Mannan told The Independent. These might be the effects of climate change, he added. The temperatures keep varying. It was 32.2 degrees Celsius both in Mongla and Jessore yesterday as against 29.1degrees Celsius in Dhaka. The temperature even dropped to 27 degrees C in March, he said. The rains were caused due to a westerly disturbance in the western horizon meeting with easterly winds, resulting in rains.
“Now the low pressure has gone. But the westerly high has not. It has remained over parts of West Bengal and Bihar in India, where there was high pressure, making it cool over there, leaving parts of Bangladesh cool later in the night.