Dense fog disrupted flight operations during morning hours for the second consecutive running on Sunday at Saidpur airport as temperature has started falling in the northern region, announcing the arrival of winter.
The airport authority said that sight clearance dropped to maximum 800 metres during morning hours against required 1,500 metres due to fog.
The first flight to Saidpur airport on Sunday landed about an hour and a half later at around 9:30am, said the airport authorities.
Bangladesh鈥檚 lowest night聽 temperature of 13.8C was recorded at Badalgachi in Naogaon district on Sunday. The temperature remained around 15C in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions.
鈥楾he winter has arrived in parts of the northern Bangladesh,鈥� said meteorologist Bazlur Rashid.
After a drop in temperature over the next several days, he said, there will be a spell of rise in the last days of the month.
The temperature will start falling across Bangladesh from December, he said.
December is the first month of the three-month-long winter.
The arrival of winter comes as a relief for the interim government, which has faced tough challenges in meeting the electricity demand after assuming power on August 8 following the overthrow of the immediate-past authoritarian government led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh has been grappling with a lingering dollar crisis severely limiting its capacity to import energy for power gemeration.
The power demand remained largely around 10,000MW over the last several days. Bangladesh鈥檚 current installed power generation capacity is 27,791MW. In the first week of November, power cuts occurred across Bangladesh when the demand remained around 12,000MW.
A report released last year by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department revealed that all seasons got warmer since 1980.
In inland areas, the report titled Changing Climate of Bangladesh said that daily maximum temperature did not increase as much as minimum temperature did during winter. In some areas, the daily maximum temperature even decreased, the report said.
The daily minimum temperature increased across all seasons, including winter, while the daily maximum temperature underwent significant increase in monsoon.
Overall, the minimum temperature increased in the coastal region but decreased in inland areas, the report said, attributing the phenomenon to local and regional pollution, inhibiting daytime warming by blocking the sunlight.
The minimum temperature, representing night temperature, constitutes a cold wave when it falls below 10C.
By divisions, Dhaka recorded the highest increase of 0.5C in minimum temperature since 1980, the BMD report revealed.
Khulna and Sylhet recorded a 0.4C rise in minimum temperature each, followed by Rangpur and Chattogram recording 0.3C rise in the minimum temperature and Mymensingh recording 0.2C increase. Barishal recorded a 0.1C rise in minimum temperature. Only Rajshahi division saw a fall in the minimum temperature, by 0.1C.聽聽
