Major rivers in Bangladesh鈥檚 four river basins鈥擝rahmaputra, Ganges, Meghna and south-eastern hill basin鈥攁re swelling amidst heavy to very heavy rainfall inside Bangladesh and its upstream areas in India with forecasts of the ongoing wet spell persisting through July 6.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department issued a fresh 72-hour heavy rainfall warning all over Bangladesh on Sunday afternoon, adding that the rain might trigger landslides in Chattogram and Sylhet divisions.
In the 24 hours until 6:00pm on Sunday, Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum rainfall of 134mm was聽 recorded in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, home to over a million Rohingya refugees living in shanties on the slopes of small hills.
Dhaka recorded 32mm of rainfall over the same time.
鈥榃hile the rainfall in Rangpur, Sylhet and Mymensingh divisions likely to increase, heavy to very heavy rainfall will continue in other divisions as well,鈥� said meteorologist Monowar Hossain.聽
Southwest monsoon was strong over the north of Bay of Bengal and adjoining coastal areas, the BMD said, noting that the strong monsoon was influencing deep convection with chances of gusty and squally weather affecting maritime ports, north bay and adjoining areas, the BMD said.
Maritime ports of Chattogram, Cox鈥檚 Bazar, Mongla and Payra were advised to keep hoisting local cautionary signal number three while fishing boats and trawlers over the north bay were advised to remain close to the coast and proceed with caution until further notice.
抖阴精品 correspondent in Chattogram, citing the local Met Office, reported 70.6mm of rainfall between 3:00am to 3:00pm, triggering water stagnation in places in the city.
Areas such as Agrabad, GEC, Muradpur, Katalganj, and Bahaddarhat were waterlogged with knee-deep water.
Data released by the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre showed that water levels at 66 out of the total 110 river gauging stations recorded swelling up to 177cm in the 24 hours until 9:00am on Sunday.
While the Kushiyara continued to flow above the danger level at Markuli, the Teesta at Kaunia was flowing just 2cm below its danger mark at 3:00pm on Sunday.
The Muhuri River rose 177cm over the 24 hours reporting cycle until Sunday morning.
The FFWC in its bulletin issued on Sunday afternoon said that the rivers in the north-east might rise rapidly over the next 48 hours, especially Surma, Kushiyara, Old-Surma, Sarigowain rivers following heavy to very heavy rainfall inside Bangladesh and its upstream in India.
In the 24 hours until 9:00am on Sunday, the FFWC recorded Bangladesh鈥檚 highest rainfall of 190mm in Panchagarh, followed by over 100mm of rainfall in Thakurgaon, Sunamganj and Cox鈥檚 Bazar over the same period.
The rainfall might result in short-term flooding of the low-lying areas in Sylhet and Sunamganj districts.
The India Meteorological Department said that vast swathes of areas in Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh witnessed between 100mm to 330mm of rainfall in the 24 hours until 8:30am on Sunday.
The IMD predicted extremely heavy rainfall in Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh through today.
Other states in north-east India might witness isolated very heavy rainfall through July 4, the IMD forecast said.
Bangladesh鈥檚 maximum day temperature dropped yet again on Sunday following heavy rainfall to 33.8C in Jashore. The day maximum temperature dropped below 30C in many areas in Rangpur, Mymensingh, Sylhet and Chattogram divisions.
The country鈥檚 lowest minimum temperature of 23.8C was recorded in Bandarban.
The wet spell came as a blessing for the government for it significantly reduced power demand when busload power plants and one of the two floating storage and regasification units remained partially or completely shut down due to reasons, including economic crisis and technical problems.
At 1:00am on Sunday, load shedding peaked at 1313MW against the electricity demand of 14150MW. Bangladesh鈥檚 installed power generation capacity is over 27,000MW, excluding more than 3,000MW of captive power generation capacity.
