After dry spell, unusually high rainfall in November: Met. Dept.

• There is a risk of floods in Sri Lanka as it is  anticipated that rainfall may be higher than usual

By Yohan Perera   

The present dry spell which is expected to last for some  time will be followed by unusually high rainfall in November because of  extreme weather events, a spokesman from the Department of Meteorology  said yesterday.   
“There is a risk of floods in Sri Lanka as it is  anticipated that rainfall may be higher than usual because of EL Nino  and Indian Ocean Dipole situation,” he said.    

“We will be able to access 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 neighbouring 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, Ampara, Kandy, Puttalam,  Mannar, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Jaffna,. Hambantota, Monaragala, Badulla,  Mullaitivu, Kurunegala, Trincomalee and Ratnapura are facing a drinking  water issue as a result of the dry spell.