Season鈥檚 first thunderstorm lashed parts of the country, including Dhaka, on Saturday, accompanied by strong wind and rain, potentially bringing relief from searing temperature today.
The thunderstorm hit in the afternoon and blew over Dhaka for half an hour after 6:30pm, accompanied by wind reaching up to 40km per hour, said the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
Parts of the districts of Tangail, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Khulna, Narsingdi, Netrokona and Sylhet also experienced thunderstorms around the same time.
Thunderstorms are common during this time of year, defined in meteorological parlance as pre-monsoon season, extending between March and May. Thunderstorms arrive to interrupt spells of heatwave baking people with very high temperature, often exceeding 40C. April is the warmest month.
On Saturday, the BMD said, about half of Bangladesh was in the grip of a heatwave with the country鈥檚 highest maximum temperature of 38.5C recorded in Rajshahi.
A heatwave occurs when the temperature reaches or goes beyond 35C, a threshold beyond which physical functioning could get disrupted due to excessive heat. The day temperature is measured at 3:00pm.
The heatwave was sweeping over the entire divisions of Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna and the districts of Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Feni, Moulvibazar, Barishal and Patuakhali. The maximum temperature in Dhaka was recorded at 37.2C.
The heatwave is likely to retreat a bit but continue today, the Met Office said, predicting thunderstorms at one or two places in Sylhet, Mymensingh and Rajshahi divisions.
Thunderstorms are often accompanied by lightning and hailstorm, potentially exposing human lives and property to danger. Scores of people, mainly farmers, die from lightning strikes during the thunderstorm season.