August not witnessing excessive rainfall
According to the Met Office, the average normal rainfall for August is 420.4mm
The rainfall this month is not excessive, rather it is within the normal range for this time of year, according to meteorologists.
The first 15 days of August witnessed 93% of average normal rainfall, Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik, a meteorologist at the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told The Business Standard.
"Almost half of August is still ahead. There is a forecast of normal rainfall at the tail end of August. Even if rainfall happens 15% more than 420.4mm, we consider this a normal situation," he added.
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According to the Met Office, the average normal rainfall for August is 420.4mm. This estimation is based on average rainfall between 1981 and 2010.
Meteorologist Mallik further said that 10% and 3% of excessive rainfall happened only over the Chattogram and Barishal divisions, respectively, in August.
"As 2023 is an El Nino year, it is now expected to have excessive rainfall in a short period of time. Its influence is evident in some parts of India and southeast Bangladesh," said Md Nazmul Ahasan, a meteorologist and consultant at the meteorology department of Dhaka University.
"But so far it has had no impact in other parts of Bangladesh, as the country is not directly linked to El Nino," he told TBS.
The month of July witnessed less rainfall this year. So it was apprehended that the late monsoon would bring more than the average normal rainfall in August.
Incessant rain for the last couple of days seemed to confirm the apprehension.
Agro-meteorologist HMM Tariq Hossain finds the rainfall this August supportive of Aman rice cultivation. Usually, excessive rainfall in August temporarily inundates low-lying lands. But rice cultivation goes on across moderately high land without any impacts.
"The amount of rainfall we have witnessed this month is conducive to the upcoming Aman cultivation," he added.
Recently, flash floods and the opening of the floodgates at the Indian barrages on trans-boundary rivers have submerged portions of northern and northeast Bangladesh.
Fortunately, the normal rainfall in August so far has minimised the risk of massive flooding in the middle part of the country.
