The north witnessed its major rivers substantially recede on Monday leading to an improvement in the ongoing flood condition amidst the onset of a mild heatwave.
The rapid onset of a heatwave immediately after a heavy wet spell that triggered weeks of flooding over a vast landscape involving India and Bangladesh is something warned in the 6th report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The report held the occurrence of these weather events as an outcome of global warming.
鈥楢 mild heatwave gripped entire Rangpur and Sylhet divisions and the district of Feni,鈥� said meteorologist Kazi Jebunnesa.
Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum day air temperature of 36.5C on Monday was recorded in Nilphamari, Saidpur, Rangpur and Srimangal. Dhaka鈥檚 maximum day air temperature was recorded at 34.9C.
The heatwave is likely to continue amidst forecast of a dry weather spell through the rest of the week. The day temperature is forecast to increase today.
The Bangladesh Meteorology Department recorded in Srimangal the day鈥檚 maximum rainfall of 18mm, which is a significant drop compared with the precipitation that reigned the first two weeks of the month鈥� up to 300mm in 24 hours.
India Meteorological Department also reported a significant drop in rainfall in Bangladesh鈥檚 adjacent upstream.
The heatwave set in when millions were still stranded in flooding in the north and north-eastern districts. Nearly 1,000 villages were still flooded in Sylhet district alone, according to the daily situation report released on Monday by the disaster and relief ministry.
Over 4,000 people were still in flood shelters in Kurigram and Gaibandha because of the flooding, the situation report revealed, with hundreds of thousands marooned in hundreds of flooded villages in the northern districts.
The number of rivers flowing above their danger marks halved on Monday from eight on Sunday. The number of river gauging stations reporting flooding also dropped to seven on Monday from 13 the day before.
The Jamuna overtopped the danger mark by 59cm at Jagannathganj in Jamalpur at 9:00am on Monday, according to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.
The overall flood situation was set to keep improving over the next 48 hours, said the FFWC in its bulletin issued on Monday afternoon.
The Ganges River, however, was in falling trend which was likely to continue over the next 72 hours, the FFWC said.
