Winter tightens its grip on Bangladesh
Dhaka recorded the season’s lowest temperature on a chilly Thursday, December 25, as winter made its early presence in the capital and elsewhere in Bangladesh. The mercury plunged to 14 degrees Celsius, almost two notches below the day before, signalling the severest chill Dhaka has experienced this season.
Temperatures have remained at 10°C to 15°C (range) all over the country, meaning a gradual fall of winter rather than an abrupt onset of cold wave,” Imran told Xinhua. Though it really didn’t seem like anything significant on paper, the change was jarring.
It’s been as if, over the past couple of days, Dhaka has turned even more mean-hearted. The city was cloaked in heavy fog in the early morning and late at night, while a close, dry cold bit along the orbiting streets and alleys. Visibility plummeted, slowing morning commutes and making daily ones all the more agonising. And when the sun got up later in the day, it felt thin and evanescent—too meagre to fight off the residual cold.
Meteorologist Hafizur Rahman gave a cautious reassurance that while some areas may see temperatures fall slightly further, there is no immediate threat of the cold wave that claimed around 60 lives last week. “In some areas, it can be a couple of degrees cooler for a while,” he said, adding that such variations are pretty common in the regular midwinter pattern of Bangladesh.
The cold wasn’t distributed equally across the divisions. Dhaka division also witnessed minimum temperatures between 12.5 °C and 14.2°C, with Munshiganj and Tangail among the districts that recorded some low readings. The cold was most severe in the Rajshahi division, with minimum temperatures ranging from 10°C to 11°C, especially in places like Rajshahi, Sirajganj, and Pabna.
The region’s lowest temperature was recorded at Rangpur division, where mercury dropped to as low as 10 degrees or a little more in some districts, including Dinajpur, Kurigram and Nilphamari – presenting the residents with a foggy morning and bitterly cold weather that took its time to bid goodbye.
In the rest of the country, temperatures were a bit less intense and relatively mild in Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions and rather incredible but not too harsh in Chattogram’s coast belt, including its Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf regions due to sea influence. In the Khulna and Barishal divisions, it was in the low teens, low enough to make the grip on winter feel tight without being too cold.
The BMD has also said that all northern and northwestern regions will witness a further drop in temperature over the next few days. The country is likely to experience dry weather with partly cloudy conditions, while moderate to dense fog is expected in plain areas and river basins from midnight till morning. Light to moderate fog is also expected in some other parts.
For now, Bangladesh slides into the less harried rhythm of winter — misty mornings, sluggish roads, and a communal lunge for warm clothing. Though no cold wave threatened, the season has unmistakably descended — reminding city and countryside both that even a mild winter can put Dhaka in a shiver.