All 5 BMD radars down amid heavy rain

BMD says Dhaka’s radar may be restored soon, while Rangpur’s radar is awaiting repairs

7 July 2026, 20:35 PM

UPDATED 8 July 2026, 00:45 AM

Star Online Report

The radar system of Rangpur meteorological office has remained inoperative for the last seven years. File Photo: Star

All five weather radars used by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) to monitor real-time weather conditions are currently out of order.

According to the BMD, the radars are located in Dhaka, Rangpur, Moulvibazar, Cox’s Bazar, and Khepupara in Patuakhali.

Among those, the Cox's Bazar radar has been out of order for nearly three years. The Khepupara radar in Patuakhali has been closed for eight years. The Moulvibazar radar has also been inoperable for several years. And the Rangpur radar has been shut down since June 17 due to a mechanical fault.

The lone radar in the Dhaka region, located in Gazipur's Joydebpur, which was operational, has not been working for a few days due to the disruption of electricity supply, an official of the met office said.

“Hopefully, the Dhaka’s radar will be operational within a few hours as electricians are working on it,” Md Abdul Matin, senior communication engineer at BMD, told The Daily Star this evening.

He said the radar located in Rangpur will also be fixed in a few days as it is still under warranty coverage and they are working on it.

After a long wait of 12 years, the Rangpur radar was launched in May last year. Before this, the old radar in Rangpur had become completely inoperable after 2012.

In 1999, the first Doppler weather radar was installed in the northern region with Japanese funding.

A major mechanical problem arose in 2007, and it became completely useless in 2012. Since then, there has been no operational weather radar in the northern region of the country for over a decade.

Meteorological Department officials say that the parts of old radars have become obsolete. These parts are no longer available in the international market. As a result, it is not possible to repair them even if desired. In many cases, the entire radar system has to be re-installed.

Abdul Matin said the government is considering installing three new radars in Cox’s Bazar, Patuakhali and Moulvibazar with its own funds.

A met official said a Japanese agency has visited and inspected it. The feasibility study of the project has been completed. New equipment needs to be installed. The documents regarding this are with the ministry.

Asked about the problem of having no active radar in the country, Bazlur Rashid, a meteorologist at BMD, said they have many other alternative mechanisms to forecast weather, such as access to international satellite data.

“So we are conducting our daily work using those resources,” he said.