6 July 2024 06:02 am Views - 1856
By Yohan Perera
Southwest Monsoon is expected to get active once again during the coming days, Director General Department of Meteorology Athula Karunanayake said yesterday.
Mr. Karunanayake told the media that there would be heavy rains during the early hours in the morning and during the night time during the coming days as it is going to be the pattern of the southwest monsoon. Fair weather is expected during noon hours.
He said 75 mm of rain are expected in Western, Sabaragamuwa and Southern Provinces while a few bouts of rain are expected in North Central Provinces.
Sri Lanka started experiencing southwest monsoon rains end May this year where around 30 persons were killed while 93,770 houses were damaged. The rains lasted till the first week of June. The monsoon became less active during the latter half of June. South West monsoon usually last till September according to the Department of Meteorology.
The Department of Agriculture in its advisory report said above normal rainfall is expected within the month of July and August this year over Western, Southern, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Uva Province and Puttalam District. However, the report said proper water management practices were carried out during the beginning of the Yala season and that it helped to complete a successful season and secure a successful Maha season of 2024/2025. Field crop damages have been reported from Galle, Colombo, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Matara, Kalutara and Ratnapura Districts due to heavy rains in the recent past. Meanwhile, according to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) data, a greater percentage of power has been generated from hydropower. Accordingly, 17.78 gigawatts of power was generated from major hydropower projects and 3.6 gigawatts was generated from mini hydropower projects.
Some 12.79 GWh of power has been generated from CEB thermal power and a further 3.56 GWh were generated from thermal oil plants. The rest were from solar and wind power. The same scenario is expected for a few more weeks.