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Weather patterns have turned chaotic: Met. Dept. Chief
The chilly weather caused by winds blowing over the island from the north–east during the monsoon is set to continue for the next two weeks, the Met. Dept. said.
Colombo city: Rain, rain everywhere (above and below left). Pix by M.D. Nissanka
This would result in chilly weather during the day and night, Duty Meteorologist Dharshana Premathileka said.
Explaining the phenomenon, Met. Dept’s former Director K.R. Abeysinghe said “usually the weather during the North-East-Monsoon depends on two pressure systems – the first blowing from northern India and the other from Russia.
When the pressure system of one region strengthens, the other weakens, each active for a period of two weeks.”
He said such weather will prevail because there is no cloud formation in the country, resulting in fog formation upcountry, frost formation and radiation cooling.
Due to this extreme weather, crops such as beetroot, potatoes and lettuce were damaged Nuwara Eliya Government Agent K.H.M Meegasmulla said.
The temperature in some areas in the district such as Horton Plains was as low as 15 degrees Celsius and the Wildlife Department staff at Horton Plains found it hard to do their duties due to the chilly weather, she said.
Nuwara Eliya General Hospital Director Dr. Anura Jayasekera said people should take precautionary measures to prevent becoming seriously affected.
Low temperatures affect asthmatic and elderly heart patients. If the temperature drops below freezing point, blood related diseases, headaches and muscle cramps can also occur.
“Such patients should wear warm clothes, gloves and socks and take warm drinks. Pregnant females and infants should take extra care to keep warm,” he said.
Meanwhile, Met. Department Deputy Director Anusha Warnasooriya said the country may experience severe weather conditions with high temperatures, severe flooding and drought in the last part of 2015 as a result of the El Nino phenomenon.
She said a climate pattern occurs across the Pacific Ocean where the ocean temperature rises by a few degrees resulting in floods, droughts and other disturbances in many regions of the world.
“The central hills would then face extreme weather patterns that would veer from severe drought to floods during this monsoon. The latter could contribute to landslides and destroy the hill country vegetable production,” she explained.
Due to an atmospheric disturbance, the Met. Department said showery weather will continue to prevail over the eastern parts of the country. Several spells of showers or thundershowers will occur at times in the Northern, North-Central, Eastern and Uva Provinces and in the Hambantota District.
The public is warned to take adequate precautions against lightning activity, Ms. Warnasooriya added.
Met Department Director General L. Chandrapala explained “We have examined the past weather patterns when El Nino was active and found that rains have increased in this part of the world in the last quarter of the year.”
Sri Lanka is better prepared than five years ago to deal with fluctuating climatic trends that have resulted in frequent extreme weather conditions, he said.
Depending on its strength and the geography of the country, El Nino can affect in different ways even though it normally relates to dry weather,” he said.
Weather patterns have turned extremely chaotic where the classic monsoon is not experienced anymore and the heaviest rains seem to be falling during the inter-monsoonal period.
“Early action is necessary for relevant Government Departments to draw on a combination of local weather patterns and experiences in similar El-Nino conditions in other countries to draw up an emergency plan to address the risks that could occur,” he said.
| Teach farmers how to face adverse weather: HARTI official An official of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training institute (HARTI) said that, the Government need to raise awareness and educate farmers in ways of mitigating the negative impacts of adverse weather conditions. Meanwhile, farmers also need to be encouraged to grow cereals like soya, green gram and chickpeas during the seasons and need to be educated how to maximise the production before the full effects of El Nino are felt. The price of imported big onions has increased by Rs. 11 a kilo and the price of local onions has increased by Rs. 5 a kilo, while the prices of vegetables compared to last week have gone up drastically – carrot by Rs. 76 a kilo, leeks by Rs. 33 a kilo, beetroot by Rs. 18 a kilo and tomato by Rs. 3 kilo. |
Landslide Research and Risk Management Division Head of National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) R.M.S Bandara said the country should adopt cell broadcasting and implement this technology which will be a life saver during a disaster”.
Rivers which are in danger of flooding can be easily detected by fixing rain gauges for monitoring giving sufficient time to alert people and organise proper evacuation.
“We have given many rain gauges to landslide prone areas like Badulla, Nuwara Eliya and Matara and informed the public to report to us quickly of any risks that they may have to face”, he said.
DMC Jaffna District Assistant Director Sangarapillai Ravi said that with the failure of rains, an extended dry spell had affected 200,000 people in the Northern Province lacking clean and safe drinking water.