Sri Lanka vulnerable to extreme weather events as an island in equatorial belt

*Meteorology Department lacks observation capacity to detect localized, regional developments like thundershowers

*Intensity of rain has increased, 100 mm rain witnessed only in 20 days in the past, but it takes only three days for it now

By Yohan Perera and Huzefa Aliasgar

Colombo, October 15 (Daily Mirror) - Sri Lanka, as a country surrounded by the ocean and in the equatorial belt, is always vulnerable to extreme weather events, but the Meteorology Department lacks capacity for observation in localized and regional developments for more accurate weather forecasting, a climatologist said yesterday.

Senior Climatologist Department -Meteorology Malith Fernando told journalists that Sri Lanka cannot afford to develop technology for numerical weather prediction models. He said such facilities are available in the United States, European Union and China, but such data from them are useful in forecasting monsoonal and cyclonic developments.

"We currently pay around 10,000 Euros annually to get such data from the European Union. Yet we need to develop observation capacity to detect localized developments and regional developments for accurate weather forecasting," he said.

“Also the temperature in the sea around Sri Lanka increases by a few millimetres annually. In addition, the sea level is also on the increase. This situation could result in surging tides almost regularly,” he added.

“This shortcoming is not confined to Sri Lanka alone but to the countries in the equatorial belt,” he said.

Also, he confirmed that the intensity of rains has also increased over the year. “It took around 20 days for an area to get a rainfall of 100mm during the olden days. However, it takes only three days to experience 100mm of rain now. This is how the intensity of rains has increased over the years,” he said

Commenting on the current weather conditions, he said the rains did not reduce as it was expected yesterday. “We expected the rains to reduce by yesterday but it did not happen as it intensified suddenly,” he said. However, we expect the rains to reduce after Thursday, October 17, 2024. Rains which might exceed might occur in Western, Southern, North Western and Sabaragamuwa Provinces during the coming days.

Some 158,391 persons belonging to 40,516 families in more than 12 districts have been displaced by adverse weather conditions according to Disaster Management Centre (DMC) from October 7 to this date. Colombo, Gampaha, Kegalle, Kandy, Galle, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Kilinochchi, Polonnaruwa, Hambantota, Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya and Puttalam Districts have been affected.

The inclement weather has also claimed three lives as of yesterday. All three persons who died had been under the influence of liquor and had ignored the warnings given by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) according to its Director Adeepa Tilakaratne. We have been warning people to refrain from visiting disaster-hit areas but people have been ignoring this over the years,” he said.

It was revealed that relief is provided to people in the Puttalam, Gampaha, Colombo and Kalutara as these areas have been worse affected. A total of Rs 36 million had already been allocated to the four districts, whole 84 million rupees had been allocated to other districts island-wide.

Meanwhile National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) Director General Asiri Karunawardene said some 15,000 houses have been identified as high risk and steps will be taken to relocate the families residing in those. “This will be a time-consuming process,” he said.

At the same time, it was mentioned that deaths related to landslides have been reduced over the years as people are more informed about landslides than before.