Foggy country shivers in cold

The mercury dropped further yesterday and most parts of the country remained blanketed in thick fog.

The situation is unlikely to change in the next two days, according to the Met office.

The lowest temperature was recorded in Ishwardi of Pabna at 7.2 degrees Celsius yesterday while the temperature of Dhaka was 12.6 degrees Celsius.

On Friday, the lowest temperature was 9.4 degrees Celsius in Jessore and Dhaka's temperature was 13.4 degrees Celsius.

Due to a light depression over the Bay, the cold wave is sweeping all over the country, Mohammad Shah Alam, director of Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told The Daily Star.

“There is a possibility of rain at the end of this month, and after that, the temperature of some regions may go down further,” he said.

The country may experience another cold wave either on January 4 or 5 next year, Alam added.

The ongoing winter chill has battered life in many places, especially in Pabna, Jessore and Kushtia, report our correspondents.

Farmers and day labourers are mainly bearing the brunt of the ongoing cold spell. Many poor people are trying to combat the bone-chilling cold with the heat from burning straw and old rubber tyres.

Many preferred to stay indoors yesterday.

The price of warm clothes in different markets and roadside shops in the capital has also shot up.

In some districts, dozens of hospital admissions were reported. Most of the victims were elderly people and children suffering from cold-related complications.

Meanwhile, two international flights -- Biman Bangladesh Airlines 'BG 028' from Abu Dhabi and an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah, UAE -- were forced to land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka due to blurred visibility, said airport's Information Assistant Moyazzam Hossain.

In Chittagong, flight operations at Shah Amanat International Airport were disrupted for more than an hour due to poor visibility caused by the dense fog, said Noor-E-Alam, the airport manager.

Two domestic flights of Novoair and US-Bangla airlines landed behind schedule, he added.

Ferry services on the Daulatdia-Paturia route in the Padma were suspended for around nine hours till early yesterday because of the thick mist, said Bidyut Kumar Saha, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation at Aricha Ghat.

The fog also led to long tailbacks on both sides of the river near some ferry terminals.