The bone-chilling cold coupled with clouds and fog continued sweeping over the northern region forcing people to stay indoors and hampering vehicular traffic on the roads and highways till 9 am on Friday.
The unbearable bite of cold exposed the poor, elderly people and minor children to extreme miseries prompting local authorities to further intensify distribution of warm clothes among cold-stricken people. Met Office sources said minimum temperatures remained mostly unchanged with a little fluctuation during the past 24 hours reducing the gap between the minimum and maximum temperatures to around 10 degrees Celsius causing the chilling cold. The minimum temperatures recorded today were 11 degrees Celsius at Rangpur, 10 degrees at Dinajpur, 10.5 degrees at Saidpur, 9.6 degrees at Tentulia, 10.6 degrees at Dimla and 11 degrees Celsius at Rajarhat points in the sub-Himalayan region.
The average maximum temperatures ranged between 20 and 22 degrees Celsius on Fridayin the region.
The sun remained covered behind thick layers of clouds, fog and mists giving most parts of the extreme northern region a darker look till 9 am today amid blowing cooler winds from the northwestern directions.
However, the situation marked little improvement after the sun appeared around 10 am for a couple of hours, though the weather started to deteriorate again in the afternoon.
Local residents said the weather dulled businesses causing thin presence of people in most places while the cold aggravated sufferings of those living particularly on sandy char areas in the Brahmaputra basin on Friday.
Physicians at different hospitals and upazila health complexes said they continued to treat a higher number of people, including aged citizens and babies, with cough, fever, asthma and other cold and climate change related diseases during the past few days.
Divisional Deputy Director (Health) Dr Md Habibur Rahman, however, said stock of medicines were adequate and steps were taken at the government-run health facilities in all eight districts of Rangpur division to treat cold-related patients.
The district administrations, NGOs, voluntary, professional, socio-cultural and charitable organisations, business bodies, banks and other institutions have intensified distribution of warm clothes among the cold-stricken people to mitigate their sufferings.
District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer of Rangpur Md. Motahar Hossain said distribution of warm clothes continues among cold- hit distressed people in the district as elsewhere in the sub-Himalayan northern region.
"We have got allocations of 75,000 pieces of blankets from the ministry concerned and Prime Minister's Relief Fund so far and distribution of those among cold-hit people in Rangpur continues in full swing," he said.
