EnvironmentAfter at least 28 lightning deaths in four days in late April 2026, experts including Professor M A Farukh of Bangladesh Agricultural University explained why lightning strikes, who is most at risk, how to treat the injured and why a superstition drives the theft of victims' bodies.
EnvironmentAn unusually high number of kalbaishakhi storms in April 2026 kept Bangladesh free of a prolonged heatwave; on 28 April meteorologist Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik said temperatures could run above normal after the first week of May, with one or two low-pressure areas likely in the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh Meteorological Department data show 3,658 people killed by lightning between 2015 and 2025, with Sunamganj in Sylhet the worst-hit district; meteorologists trace the risk to haor moisture, the hills to the north-east and the collision of dry and humid air masses.
Mature mangoes knocked down by a storm in Chapainawabganj's Gomostapur upazila are selling for just Tk 3.5 a kg.
A nor'wester and half an hour of hail on 28 April flattened Boro paddy fields across Jashore, leaving farmers in despair.
A student and media worker recalls racing his cousins to gather storm-fallen mangoes during childhood summers in his uncle's village.
