Climate change in Bangladesh is usually discussed through the familiar language of floods, cyclones, heatwaves, and rising seas. Winter, by contrast, has long been treated as a relatively benign season, especially in urban centres like Dhaka. Yet the winters of 2025 and early 2026 have challenged this assumption. Cold waves, once largely confined to the northern districts, have increasingly reached the capital, reshaping everyday life and exposing deep social inequalities that climate discourse often overlooks.
For decades, intense winter cold was considered a regional problem. Northern districts such as Rangpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, and Panchagarh regularly experienced biting cold, dense fog, and sharp temperature drops. Dhaka, meanwhile, was accustomed to mild winters, marked more by pleasant weather than by hardship. That distinction is now eroding. During late December 2025 and early January 2026, Dhaka experienced prolonged cold spells, dense fog, and unusually low night temperatures. Mornings were marked by thick fog that delayed traffic, disrupted river transport, and kept the sun hidden for hours, intensifying the sense of cold across the city.
Meteorologists explain that this shift does not contradict global warming. On the contrary, it reflects the growing instability of the climate system. As global temperatures rise, weather patterns become more erratic. Cold air flows from the north, combined with persistent fog and reduced sunlight, can trap cold conditions even in tropical cities. The winters of 2025 and 2026 demonstrated how climate change alters not only averages but extremes, making once-rare conditions increasingly familiar.
The arrival of cold waves in Dhaka matters not only because it feels unusual, but because it reveals who bears the cost of climate variability. For middle- and upper-income residents, winter discomfort is manageable. Warm clothing, insulated apartments, private healthcare, and flexible work arrangements soften the impact. Cold days become an inconvenience rather than a crisis. For millions of others, however, winter is a season of vulnerability.
Dhaka’s urban poor experience cold very differently. In informal settlements, houses are made of tin, plastic sheets, or thin wooden panels that offer little insulation against cold winds and damp air. Many families lack adequate blankets or winter clothing. Nights become particularly harsh, and the cold seeps into daily life in ways that affect health, productivity, and dignity. For those living on the streets, winter can be life-threatening. Every year, reports emerge of homeless people falling seriously ill or dying during cold spells, a stark reminder that the city’s climate resilience is unevenly distributed.
Health impacts become especially visible during these winters. Cold conditions aggravate respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and asthma, conditions already prevalent in Bangladesh. Children, the elderly, and people with chronic illnesses are particularly vulnerable. In poorer households, where nutrition may be inadequate and healthcare access limited, a seasonal illness can quickly become severe. The dense fog that accompanies cold waves also traps air pollution close to the ground, worsening respiratory distress in a city already struggling with poor air quality.
Cold waves also carry economic consequences that are often invisible in official statistics. A large segment of Dhaka’s workforce depends on daily outdoor labour. Rickshaw pullers, construction workers, street vendors, and informal transport workers cannot simply stay indoors when the weather turns hostile. Dense fog reduces visibility, slows movement, and cuts customer flow. Cold mornings shorten working hours. For families living hand to mouth, even a few lost workdays translate into immediate food insecurity and debt. Climate stress, in this sense, is inseparable from livelihood insecurity.
The experience of the winters of 2025 and 2026 points to a broader problem in how climate risks are understood and managed. National and urban climate strategies rightly focus on floods, heatwaves, and waterlogging, which cause dramatic and visible damage. Cold waves, however, remain largely treated as seasonal inconveniences, addressed mainly through short-term relief efforts such as blanket distribution. While such measures save lives, they are not enough.
The changing pattern of winter suggests that cold waves are no longer exceptional events limited to rural areas. They are becoming part of urban climate reality. Dhaka’s experience should prompt a rethinking of climate adaptation priorities. Urban planning rarely considers winter resilience. Housing standards for low-income communities do not account for insulation or protection against cold. Public health planning focuses far more on summer heat stress than on winter illness. Emergency preparedness systems are better attuned to floods than to prolonged cold spells.
Climate change is not only about rising temperatures; it is about unpredictability. The winters of 2025 and 2026 show that Bangladesh must prepare for a wider range of climate extremes. This preparation must be socially informed. Improving housing quality for the urban poor is not just a development issue; it is a climate adaptation strategy. Expanding access to healthcare during winter months, establishing temporary warming shelters for the homeless, and ensuring that early warnings translate into targeted action can significantly reduce suffering.
There is also a deeper lesson here about inequality. Climate impacts are not evenly distributed, even within the same city. Those with resources adapt privately, while those without bear the full weight of environmental stress. Cold waves expose this divide with quiet cruelty. The suffering they cause rarely makes headlines in the way floods do, but it is no less real. Winter deaths, illness, and income loss are often treated as unfortunate but inevitable, rather than as failures of policy and planning.
Bangladesh’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions remains negligible, yet its people face the consequences of a destabilised climate in multiple forms. The cold waves that reached Dhaka in 2025 and 2026 are a reminder that vulnerability is expanding, not shrinking. Climate change is no longer a distant or rural problem; it is reshaping urban life in subtle but damaging ways.
If resilience is to mean more than survival, it must address everyday risks as well as dramatic disasters. Winter cold may seem modest compared to cyclones or floods, but for the poor, it can be just as devastating. Recognising this reality is the first step toward a more inclusive climate response.
As Dhaka grows and climate patterns continue to shift, winter can no longer be treated as a season that spares the city. The cold has arrived at the capital’s doorstep. Whether it continues to deepen inequality or becomes a catalyst for more inclusive planning will depend on how seriously policymakers choose to listen to what these winters are telling us.
The writer is a researcher and development professional