AFP
Bangladesh: April was the hottest month ever recorded by weather services
Bangladesh experienced the hottest month of April since the country began keeping weather records in 1948, an official with the national meteorological department told AFP on Wednesday. hottest since 1948 in terms of hot days and area covered in the country,” said Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik, chief meteorologist of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department. Bangladesh is experiencing an extreme heatwave that has prompted authorities to close schools across the country, with temperatures not expected to drop until Thursday. “This year’s heat wave has affected about 80% of the country. We have never seen such widespread and uninterrupted heat waves before “, Mr. Mallik pointed out. According to the chief meteorologist, the average daily temperature in April recorded between 1981 and 2010 stood at 33.2 degrees Celsius, while this year, the country’s weather stations recorded temperatures two to eight degrees higher than this. Health department spokesperson Selim Raihan told AFP that at least 11 heat-related deaths had been recorded in recent months. last ten days.- “Only a millimeter of rain” -The usual April storms preceding the monsoon, which generally cool the South Asian country before summer, did not occur, he said added. “An average of 130.2 millimeters of rain falls in April in Bangladesh. But this month, on average, only one millimeter of rain fell,” he said, adding that his department was seeking to confirm a possible record low rainfall for the month of April. A few showers, however, are expected to bring some respite from Thursday after a week of scorching heat, particularly in the capital, Dhaka, which saw temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. Experts say climate change is causing more frequent, more intense and longer-lasting heat waves. “The severity of this heat wave highlights the urgent need for action to protect children from the worsening impacts of climate change,” said UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, in a statement last week. Bangladesh schools to remain closed until Sunday The government had ordered classes to resume last weekend, but a Bangladeshi court ordered a. new closure of classes on Monday, after the heat-related deaths of several teachers. – “intolerable” -Last Wednesday, thousands of Muslim faithful gathered in mosques in the cities and countryside of Bangladesh to pray for the arrival “Life has become unbearable because of the lack of rain,” Muhammad Abu Yusuf, an imam, told AFP after his morning prayer in front of a thousand worshipers in central Dhaka . “The poor are suffering greatly.” According to Mahfuzur Rahman, owner of a cigarette stall in one of Dhaka’s biggest wholesale markets, the past week has been “intolerable.” “Some days it was so hot that I felt like my head was spinning, I couldn’t concentrate, I was sleepy,” he told AFP. “But I have to make sales to at least earn a little money.” This exceptional heat wave is currently affecting South and Southeast Asia. Weather services in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh are all forecasting temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. The months leading up to the monsoon, or rainy season in the region, are generally warm, but temperatures this year are well above average in many countries. According to the United Nations, Asia was the region most affected by extreme weather events in 2023, with floods and storms causing heavy human losses and economic.Asia is also warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency.sa-lth/ref
