Unusual increase of rainfall will follow dry spell: Met Dept.

The current dry spell may converted into a diametrically opposite condition in Sri Lanka as an unusual increase of rainfall is expected by November this year, a spokesman from the Department of Meteorology said today.

“There is a risk of floods in Sri Lanka as it is anticipated that rainfalls may be higher than usual by November this year because of the EL Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole situation,” he said.

“We will be able to assess the situation only in October and forecast accurately, but at the moment we can say that Sri Lanka is running a risk of floods by November,” he added.  

Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is an ocean-atmosphere interaction very similar to the El Nino fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean, playing out, as the name shows, in the Indian Ocean. It is also a much weaker system than El Nino, and thus has relatively limited impacts. However, a positive IOD does have the potential to offset the impacts of El Nino to a small measure in neighboring areas, and it has, at least once in the past (1997), delivered admirably on this potential.

Meanwhile some 210,790 people belonging to 60,996 families in 15 districts including Matale, Gampaha, Amapra, Kandy, Puttalam, Mannar, Batticloa, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Hambantota, Moneragala, Badulla, Mullaitivu, Kurunegala, Trinocomalee and Ratnapura are facing a shortage of drinking water as a result of  the dry spell. (Yohan Perera)