Unusually hot April in Asia takes toll on hundreds of millions

Heatwave forces schools to close, workers to scale back and puts crops under threat

Hundreds of millions of people in South and South - East Asia were suffering this week from a punishing heatwave that has forced schools to close, disrupted agriculture, and raised the risk of heat stroke and other health complications.

The weather across the region in April is generally hot and comes before Asia's annual summer monsoon, which dumps rain on parched soil. But this April's temperatures have so far been unusually high.

In Bangladesh, where schools and universities are closed this week, temperatures in some areas have soared above 42 deg C. Those numbers do not quite capture how extreme humidity makes the heat feel even worse.

"Due to increasing moisture incursion, the discomfort may increase" over the next 72 hours, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said in a notice on April 22. In Dhaka, the capital, the humidity was 73 per cent, and many areas in the country have experienced daily power outages.