Government hospitals in northern Bangladesh battled with a record surge of cold patients on Sunday as the country’s lowest minimum temperature this winter was recorded at 5.5° Celsius at Rajarhat in Kurigram.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned that the temperature might further drop today with the cold wave that has already engulfed most of the country intensifying further.
‘This is the lowest minimum temperature recorded in 20 years at this station,’ Subol Chandra Roy, in charge, Rajarhat weather station, the BMD, told New Age.
He said that the weather station at Lalmonirhat also recorded its lowest minimum temperature in 20 years at 5.7° Celsius.
The previous lowest minimum temperature of the current winter was recorded at 6.6° Celsius at Rajarhat on December 19.
This is the 3rd lowest minimum temperature to be recorded on January 31 in the history of the weather department, said meteorologist Bazlur Rashid.
The 2nd minimum tem perature on the last day of January was 3.6° Celsius at Srimangal in 1969 while the same minimum temperature was recorded the same day five years ago simultaneously at Srimangal, Faridpur, Dinajpur and Rangpur, according to BMD data.
The lowest minimum temperature in the country’s history was recorded in 2018 when it dipped to 2.6° Celsius at Tetulia.
But, overall, the outgoing January was significantly warmer than the normal average Januaries with the overall minimum temperature measuring 0.8° Celsius higher than the normal average minimum temperature, said the meteorological department.
‘Usually two to three severe cold waves are experienced in January but this year this is the only one,’ said Bazlur on the last January day, predicting that the cold wave may continue for three more days.
The meteorological department in its daily weather bulletin said that a severe cold wave was sweeping over Kurigram and Rajshahi districts while a mild to moderate cold wave had engulfed Mymensingh division, parts of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions and Tangail, Faridpur, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Nikli, Srimangal, Khulna, Jashore, Chuadanga, Kushtia, Barishal and Bhola regions.
A severe cold wave occurs when the minimum temperature ranges between 4° and 6° Celsius and a mild cold wave involves temperature between 8° and 10° Celsius.
According to the BMD forecast, the minimum temperature may fall in Barishal and Chattogram today.
The Rangpur divisional health office has advised people, especially the children and the elderly, to stay indoors unless it is essential to go out.
‘This is like we are facing a calamity over here,’ said Rangpur divisional health director Ahad Ali, adding that 3,382 cold patients visited the outpatient departments with 1,270 others being hospitalised at the public hospitals in the division on Sunday.
‘This is the highest number of cold patients to be admitted on a winter day in 15 years,’ he said.
He also confirmed the deaths of five people, including two children, on Sunday caused by cold-related diseases such as pneumonia.
The deceased were Afsar Ali, 71, from Rajpur in Lalmonirhat, Omar Khan, 63, from Rajarhat in Kurigram, Sakhina Begum, 52, from Gangachara in Rangpur, Shamim, 2, from Kaonia in Rangpur and three-and-a-half-year-old Sumaiya from Sundarganj in Gaibandha.
According to the health emergency control room, 4,130 cold patients were treated at government hospitals across the country in the 24 hours till Sunday morning.
The number of daily cold patients at hospitals went up by over 1,000 in a day with over 3.40 lakh people seeking treatment for cold diseases since November 1.
‘The cold is getting to my bone,’ said Abdul Malek, 54, a resident of Kaliganj in Lalmonirhat on Sunday.
Daily wage earners and farmers suffered a lot as they had few warm clothes to face the chilling weather but could not afford staying indoors either, for they lived from hand to mouth.
Northern districts, home to the country’s most impoverished population segments, bear the brunt of the winter as the chilling northern wind first arrives there.
Meteorologically the three-month-long winter begins in December but the inhabitants of northern Bangladesh start experiencing cold from November.
‘I need to go to the field to spray medicine to prevent the spread of diseases from heavy fog but cannot stay there long enough for the severe cold,’ said Abdul Wahab, a farmer in Rangpur.
The inhabitants of central Bangladesh, including the capital Dhaka, woke up on Sunday to a chilling wind of up to 10 kilometres per hour.
Although the minimum temperature in the capital was recorded at 11.7° Celsius on Sunday, the 2nd lowest this winter, the districts around the capital recorded the minimum temperature at 10° Celsius or less.
In Dhaka division, the lowest minimum temperature of 8.3° Celsius was recorded at Gopalganj, followed by 8.5° Celsius at Tangail.
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