Sagar Biswas :
The bone-chilling cold for the last three consecutive days has almost paralyzed the normal life in urban and rural areas in the country, especially in the northwest and southwest regions.
And this cloudy and foggy spell will continue for two more days.
But the cold with more severity is likely to sweep the country accompanied by a moderate ‘cold wave’ in the coming week of the current month, the officials of the Department of Meteorology said on Tuesday.
“Cold is severe now, but it’s not a cold wave. The reason behind present increasing chill is nothing, but similarity between day and night temperature. At present, the gap between day and night temperature is very narrow due to constant cloud in the sky. So, the people feel chill almost the whole day,” Abdur Rahman, Meteorologist, Department of Meteorology, said.
“A light to moderate cold wave may sweep the country in the 4th week of this month when the temperature may prevail at 8 degrees C,” he said.
Country’s lowest temperature was recorded 12.5 degrees Celcius at far northern township Tentulia upazila in the district of Panchagarh yesterday while it was 29.7 degrees Celcius in the country’s southeastern tourist suburb Cox’s Bazar.
“Night temperature may rise slightly but day temperature may fall slightly across the country. Moderate to thick fog may occur over the country during mid night till morning…This will continue,” he added.
The normal life in the country’s northern region was seriously affected due to the cold bite along with dense fog in the past three consecutive days. Hundreds of people, mostly children and elderly men, were admitted to hospitals with cold-related diseases.
Sunlight was almost absent in the capital Dhaka for last 48 hours. Local sources from different northern districts said that the people couldn’t see the sunlight as the sky remained overcast yesterday.
Not only that, the people of north and north-eastern districts were forced to abandon their business activities to find a warmer place as the dense fog made a thick wall hiding the sunshine all over the day.
Especially, the life of people living in the slums and chars on the Ganges basin has become worst as they experience more chilly wind than that of the mainland.
Police and local sources said the situation is also causing severe disruption of river communications across the country disrupting people’s normal activities. Road transportation was severely disrupted due to thick fog while the ferry services at Aricha and Mawa were hampered interrupting the communication.
Officials said that the heavy fog led to suspension of ferry service for several hours between Mawa and Keorakandi as well as Paturia and Daulatdia. The suspended ferry service between Paturia and Daulatdia had caused long tailbacks on the Dauladia-Khulna and Dhaka- Paturia highways.
