Dhaka sees 123mm rainfall in just three hours

The Met office has recorded 123 millimetres of rainfall in Dhaka in just three hours on Thursday, which later left many roads and areas of the capital severely waterlogged.

It has been 10 years since the city saw such rainfall within three hours. In 2006, 96mm rainfall was recorded in three hours, according to Senior Meteorologist Bazlur Rashid.

Thursday's volume, registered between 12pm and 3pm, was nearly twice the rainfall recorded on Wednesday.

The heavy showers had left many streets waterlogged leading to agonising gridlocks and suffering of the city dwellers that continued until late evening.

The Met office says currently the monsoon is fairly active over Bangladesh and moderate over the north Bay of Bengal.

This could also lead to moderately heavy to heavy rainfall in many parts of the country on Friday, it said.

Rashid told bdnews24.com that such heavy showers were normal at the end of the rainy season. Rain will continue in the next few days.

The highest amount of rainfall, apart from Thursday's, in Dhaka this season was recorded in the month of June, he said.

On Jun 12-13, 139mm rainfall was recorded at the beginning of the season. On Jul 13, 103mm rain was registered.

However, only 67mm rainfall registered on the night of Jul 26 had left many areas waterlogged and brought traffic to a crawl in the city.

After the spell of heavy rain on Thursday afternoon, the situation was a lot more worse at Shantinagar, Motijheel, Mirpur and Sobhanbagh areas.

Fire Service and Civil Defence, in a rare initiative, launched a boat service at Shantinagar to help people cross the areas that went under knee-deep water.

The Met office has also foreseen more rain for the whole of August along with the possibility of floods in many regions of the country.

In its outlook for this month released on Wednesday, it said heavy torrential rains may lead to floods in areas in northern, north-western and north-eastern regions.

That might happen in the first half of the month, Shamsuddin Ahmed, the director of Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said on Wednesday.

Heavy rains may also occur in the south-eastern region, he added.

The government has already ordered Bangladesh Water Development Board and all local administrations to be ready to tackle the impacts of a possible major flooding in the third week of August.