Load shedding exceeded 1,000MW on Saturday afternoon amidst a heatwave setting in over parts of Bangladesh, causing the day temperature to touch 37C at many places.

At 4:00pm, the peak daytime load shedding stood at 1,326MW against the demand for 13,830MW.

The past few days were rather dry and hot in Bangladesh, parts of which were struggling to emerge from a deadly flash flood that killed 71 people in official estimates.

‘The ongoing heatwave will be short-lived and might start disappearing from tomorrow,’ said meteorologist AKM Nazmul Haque.

On Saturday, Bangladesh’s highest day temperature of 37C was recorded in Rangpur, Rajshahi and Sylhet districts.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that a mild heatwave was sweeping over Rangpur and Sylhet divisions and the districts of Jashore, Chuadanga, Tangail, Faridpur and Rajshahi with chances of it continuing.

In the 24 hours until 6:00pm on Saturday, the BMD said that Bangladesh’s highest maximum rainfall of 96mm was recorded in Sandwip.

The BMD warned that the low pressure area over west, central and adjoining north-west Bay of Bengal moved northwards and intensified into a well-marked low over the same area.

The low is likely to intensify further, the BMD said.

India Meteorological Department said that the low was likely to intensify into a depression today with chances of it moving west-north westward during the subsequent three days.

The weather system is likely to bring rain to east and northeast India, the IMD warned, predicting isolated and very heavy rainfall over vast landscape in Odisha, Assam and Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura between September 8 and 12.

The forecast of the depression bringing a fresh spell of rain spells bad news for thousands of Bangladeshis who are still living in flood water or trapped in flood shelters because of slow retreat of water from many areas.