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   
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  rise. 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.