Pleasant respite - rain at last

Rain accompanied by a mild nor'wester in the late afternoon on Thursday proved a great relief for the Dhaka-dwellers. Not long ago, Dhaka and its suburbs used to be awash with the first showers of summer within the first couple of days of Boishakh. The first of Boishakh has been celebrated for ages as the opening day of the month of rain and storm. The rains in some years would extend to the following month of Joishtha. The two Bangla months fall in the Gregorian calendar's April and May. The rain-washed and storm-swept month of Boishakh eventually emerged central to the country's summer culture. With intermittent or regular showers, the month of Boishakh stood out with a distinctive character. In some years, the month would see showers almost daily, punctuated by spells of unbearable day temperature under the glaring sun. However, the nor'westers would greatly jolt the suffocating atmosphere with their gales and the accompanying cool rain. This natural phenomenon has continued to occur since long.

 This year the very onset of summer in the country appears to have gone upside down. Gone are the pitch-black dark clouds in the south-western sky followed by brief storms packing strong, cool wind accompanying thundershower. In years, the storms would break loose on the very first day of the season --- Pahela Boishakh to be precise. The day ceremonially heralds the opening of the Bangla calendar year, as well as the 2-month summer.

As part of a unique, yet unpredictable, cycle of nature, a new weather pattern appears to have begun from the very month of Boishakh this year.   Ever since the formal start of the year's summer, the country has been in the grip of a mild heat wave. Almost all the districts, including Dhaka, have been under the punishing spell of summer heat since mid-April --- coinciding with Boishakh. The media has quoted the meteorological department as saying this year's summer intensity has broken a number of records of the past. The capital found itself alongside a few places in the country going through the highest temperature of the season. For Dhaka, the bout of summer heat like the one it has been experiencing for days is proving nearly unprecedented.

The city of Dhaka is no stranger to this kind of terrible temperature. So is the country. However, the country's south-western and northern regions have been notorious for high summer temperature. Surprisingly, the Dhaka city and the greater region have hardly been considered prone to high temperature. Both winter and summer in the populous city has been recognised as being mild. In such a changing weather condition, the ongoing summer spell in Dhaka points to a worrying phenomenon: Dhaka's lurch towards a new weather pattern. If it comes true, then the country's capital may be in for a series of hitherto unthought-of changes in its weather. They may range from widespread dryness to reduced soil moisture and groundwater --- i.e. a general water scarcity.

A distressing feature of the ongoing heat spell is the absence of rainfall. Except sporadic and localised mild showers, that too being light and negligible, the country has yet to have the rains befitting the Bangla month of Boishakh. In fact, this month, the first of the Bangla calendar, is normally witness to repeated nor'westers accompanied by light to heavy rains. Half the month of Boishakh has gone by, but the country has yet to experience a satisfactory level of rainfall. Protracted low rainfall raises the inevitable spectre of crop failures. While living in the times without rain for days in a row and amid a bout of dry heat, there may be grimmer forecasts.

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