Across peninsular Malaysia, the heat is getting unbearable and posing health risks for many, and nowhere is this felt more sharply than in Kedah and Perlis, two northern states at the centre of Malaysia's food-growing belt.
Over the start of the Eid period last weekend, the scorching sun dampened the holiday mood during the festival marking the end of the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.
Families are timing visits to avoid the fierce afternoon sun, farmers are watching paddy fields - known locally as "padi" - dry out, and religious authorities have urged Muslims to perform special prayers for rain as mercury levels soar in parts of the country.
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As of Wednesday morning, three Kedah districts were under a Level 2 heatwave alert, indicating maximum daily temperatures of between 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) and 40 degrees for at least three consecutive days, according to the health ministry, citing data from the Malaysian Meteorological Department. Perlis remained under a Level 1 alert, with temperatures ranging from 35 degrees to 37 degrees.
Kedah is widely known as the country's "rice bowl", and meteorologists say the hot spell could last until the start of the southwest monsoon in June, after weeks of dry weather and below-normal rainfall in many areas.
As of Monday, some parts of Kedah had gone up to 17 days without rain, while Perlis had recorded 15 dry days, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department.
"The heatwave in Perlis is no joke," said Shakir Seruandi, 25, who returned to his home state for the holiday from Kuala Lumpur, where he works in customer service. "It's different this time, I almost fainted."
Homes with air-conditioning or strong ventilation had become the preferred place to gather, he added.
Malaysia's health ministry said on Wednesday that it had recorded 15 heat-related cases nationwide between January 1 and March 24, including 11 cases of heat exhaustion, one case of heat cramps and three cases of heatstroke. One child died after being left inside a vehicle.
In a statement, the ministry urged the public to "plan [Eid] visits or outdoor activities and avoid peak hot weather between 11am and 4pm", while also advising people to drink more water and watch for symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue and nausea.
The ministry said the groups most at risk included children, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses, outdoor workers and those doing physical activities in the heat.
Some Malaysians are posting on social media to show how intense the heat has become. One user from Negeri Sembilan wrote that "Malaysia is so hot that my acne pad container melted" after it was left in a car.
Another user said the heat in Perak had warped her toll payment card that was left inside a vehicle, though it was still usable.
The worsening heat has prompted Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Religious Affairs Zulkifli Hasan to urge Muslims to perform solat sunat istisqa, or prayers for rain, amid the persistent hot and dry weather across the country.
"It is also to pray that all difficulties resulting from the current weather may be eased," he said in a statement. "May all prayers and supplications be accepted and answered by Allah, granting rain that brings goodness to all."
Kedah said special rain prayers would be held statewide on Thursday.
Wilting rice fields
Abdul Rashid Yob, chairman of Malaysia Padi Farmers Brotherhood Association, said the heat was already damaging padi in areas that depended more heavily on rainfall than on the national irrigation system.
"When the padi dries out, yields fall," he said. "And when yields fall, farmers' incomes are affected."
He said even fields that still had some standing water were drying out too quickly because of the extreme temperatures.
"At 60 days [without rainfall], if the crop loses its water supply, the grain-filling process is disrupted," he said. "Even some fields at 80 or 90 days, where there is still water, are drying too fast because the heat is too extreme."
Abdul Rashid said the danger extended to the people working the land.
"There is no shade in padi work. Everything is exposed," he said, adding that farmers were at real risk of heat illness and heatstroke while harvesting or tending to crops in open fields. He also pointed to a growing fire risk in dried-out padi areas, saying the heat would make it easier for flames to spread.
The financial squeeze could run well beyond the current planting season, he added.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department has said temperatures in the northern peninsula tend to be higher than in other parts of the country because of its proximity to the hotter Indochina land mass, and drier conditions and less cloud cover are typical at the tail end of the northeast monsoon.
The agency's March-to-August outlook also warned that drier atmospheric conditions could raise the risk of hot weather and land fires in the months ahead, even as monsoon transition rains begin to return.
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