Tentulia shivering as temperature falls to 9.5 degrees Celsius 

People of the northern town Tentulia are experiencing severe cold as the town recorded the country's lowest temperature today (7 January) at 9.5 degrees Celsius.

Sources at Met office said minimum temperatures mostly remained unchanged while maximum temperatures marked a slight fall during the last 24 hours ending at 6pm making the weather a little cooler from this evening.

The minimum temperatures were 15.1 degrees Celsius at Rangpur, 13 at Dinajpur, 14 at Saidpur, 13.3 at Rajarhat and 14.5 degrees Celsius at Dimla monitoring points while the maximum temperatures ranged between 25 degrees Celsius and 28.5 degrees Celsius.

Met office today recorded a maximum temperature of 27.2 degrees Celsius against yesterday's 28.2 degrees Celsius.

Like in the last few days, the sun appeared in a clear sky this morning. But thick layers of clouds appeared in the sky from the afternoon and thin layers of fog from the evening at places, making the weather a little cooler in the region.

"The sky may remain a little cloudy and partially foggy in the next few days in the region. There is a possibility of another mild cold wave then," Head of the Rangpur Meteorological Office Md Mostafizar Rahman told BSS today.

However, activities in crop fields and farmlands and vehicular movement on the roads and highways remained normal throughout the day.

Physicians and officials at hospitals, upazila health complexes, and community clinics said the number of patients with coughs, fevers, asthma, and other cold-related diseases marked a little fall.

The district administrations, voluntary, socio-cultural, and charitable organizations, trade bodies, and NGOs have further intensified the distribution of warm clothes among cold-stricken people to mitigate their sufferings.

Rangpur District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Md Motahar Hossain said 30,000 pieces of blankets allocated by the government and locally purchased are being distributed among cold-stricken people.

Additional Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) for the Rangpur region, Agriculturist Md Obaidur Rahman Mondal, told BSS that the cold wave hasn't caused any harm or cold injuries so far to any variety of growing crop plants in the fields.

"Boro rice seedlings and plants of other winter crops are growing normally as the weather has remained sunny since last Friday," he added. 

He also suggested that farmers should irrigate Boro rice seedbeds at night, discharge water in the mornings and keep seedbeds under cover of polythene sheets to save seedlings from cold.