A mild to moderate cold wave was sweeping over the districts of Panchagarh and Kurigram on Sunday with forecasts of both day and night temperatures slightly falling today.
The lowest minimum temperature dropped by 3.5C with the lowest 7.9C recorded in Tetulia. On Saturday, Bangladesh鈥檚 lowest temperature of 11.4C was recorded in Srimangal.
On Sunday, the minimum temperature in Dhaka remained unchanged at 17C but the maximum temperature dropped by less than 1C to 26.1C. Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum temperature of 30.8C was recorded in Teknaf on Sunday.
A mild cold wind blowing over the country, including Dhaka, however, gave a feeling of cold.
鈥楾he wind is likely to continue through today,鈥� said meteorologist Shahnaz Sultana.
The temperature is likely to increase from tomorrow, leading to substantially warm days around January 24, she said.
Bangladesh Meteorological Department predicted a cold wave to strike again around January 29, which could be the last cold wave of the three-month-long winter season starting in December.
January, the coldest winter month, felt rather warm so far with minimum and maximum temperatures not dropping to the forecast level.
A cold wave was predicted to start from January 14.
Only two very brief cold waves swept Bangladesh in January, each lasting three days 鈥� January 2 to 4, and January 9 to 11. The first cold wave impacted five districts at its peak, followed by the second one hitting 10 districts.
The temperature observations from Bangladesh showed a clear climate signal, with fewer and shorter cold waves in the recent decades, said the BMD report titled 鈥楥hanging climate of Bangladesh鈥�, released in February last year.
Historically, cold waves were frequent in January and February but in recent years the end of February had been without any, the report said about Rangpur, the coldest area.
Cold had become concentrated in January lately. But this year, even January appeared far warmer than expected.