Rains lash Dhaka, trigger snarls

Dhaka woke up to a rainy and pleasant morning on Saturday, thanks to a nor'wester that lashed the metropolis.

The weather department recorded 42mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours till 6am.

"Showers are likely to occur in Dhaka, Rangpur and Bogura districts in the next 24 hours," said Monowar Hossain, a meteorologist at Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

Though the showers brought the much-needed reprieve to the residents from the sizzling summer heat, they brought back the obvious miseries -- rush-hour traffic snarls.

The worst affected were the office-goers and school-going children as traffic crawled in several busy stretches of the densely populated metropolis due to the rains.

According to the regular bulletin of the Met Office, released on Friday, "Rain or thundershowers with intense lightning flashes and temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at many places over Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dhaka, Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions; at a few places over Chattogram division and at one or two places over Khulna and Barishal divisions with moderately heavy to heavy falls at places over the country."

The highest temperature on Friday was recorded at 37.6°C in Khulna's Jashore, while the minimum temperature was 20.8°C in Rangpur's Rajarhat.