At least six people, including three of a family, were killed in lightning strikes in Narsingdi and Tangail districts on Saturday, as a wet spell set in over the country confining the ongoing heatwave to eight districts.
The deceased are Sharifa Begum, 48, her 13-year-old son Imon Mia and his cousin Yakub Ali, 28, all residents of Alokbali Char under Narsingdi sadar upazila.
They were struck by lightning at around 11:30am, while they were working in their crop field, reported 抖阴精品 correspondent in Narsingdi.
The fourth deceased, Iqbal Hossain, 32, a resident of Hajipur under Narsingdi sadar, died about 11:30am struck by lightning as he was on way back home from the field.
Narsingdi experienced heavy rain accompanied by frequent lightning for an hour. The rain left roads completely submerged in many areas and destroyed summer vegetables in the fields.
State-owned news agency BSS reported the deaths of two cousins in a lightning strike on Sunday at Noabari聽 village of Kalihati upazila in Tangail.
The deceased, identified as Afzal Hossain, 52, and his cousin Amir Hossain, 50, were residents of Chakdafarpur village of Pirganj upazila of Dinajpur district.
The news agency reported that Afzal and Amir, along with four others came to Tangail to work in the field during the harvesting season. All the six men were busy in cutting paddy when it started raining at about 9:30am. Lightning struck them when they ran for shelter killing Afzal and Amir on the spot, and injuring the four others.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that the ongoing heatwave is likely to end by today amidst forecasts of the wet spell continuing over parts of Bangladesh through tomorrow.
Rain for the last two days over eastern and southern parts of the country already caused the temperature to significantly drop with the ongoing heatwave retreating to only nine districts on Saturday.
The districts that were in the grip of the heatwave were Gopalganj, Rajshahi, Noakhali, Cox鈥檚 Bazaar, Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Jashore, Patuakhali and Bhola.
Beginning on May 13, the ongoing heatwave spread to six divisions, including Dhaka, and the districts of Moulvibazar, Rangamati, Chandpur and Feni on May 17, when rain started in the eastern region.
鈥楻ainfall might shift to parts of northern and central Bangladesh from Sunday,鈥� said meteorologist AKM Nazmul Haque on Saturday.
The hot condition in the western part of the country is likely to be over by Monday, he said, predicting day temperatures to drop by 3C.
鈥楻ainfall is expected all over Bangladesh on May 20,鈥� said Nazmul.
On Saturday, Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum temperature of 38.2C was recorded in Mongla.
Dhaka saw its temperature drop by about 6C to 31.4C on Saturday from 37.3C the day before.
The latest heatwave started just six days after Bangladesh鈥檚 longest-ever heatwave ended after 37 days. At least 15 people died from heat stroke during the heatwave from April 22.
During the longest heatwave, the country鈥檚 highest day temperature of 43.8C was recorded in Jashore on April 30, the hottest day in over three decades. Districts such as Chuadanga and Jashore saw day temperatures stay at 40C or above for almost three weeks between mid-April and early May. Day temperatures frequently exceeded 40C in Dhaka, which saw its peak at 40.5C on April 30, the second hottest day in the capital in the past 64 years.
In the 24 hours until 6:00pm on Saturday, Bangladesh鈥檚 maximum rainfall of 101mm was recorded in Sylhet.
The BMD also predicted a low pressure to form over the Bay of Bengal by the end of the week.
Officials in the BMD said that they would be watching the low pressure system for its potential to turn into a cyclonic storm.
