Flash floods wreak havoc

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The flash floods in the Eastern province were disastrous. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, thousands of acres of cultivated lands destroyed and lands are filled with water up to tree height. Continuing the rampage the raging waters killed the animals in the wild while soaking thousands of acres of forest land.

Over one million people have been affected while 363,078 people belonging to 93,666 families are sheltered in welfare camps located in the Eastern, Uva, Central, North Central and Sabaragamuwa provinces, according to the Disaster Management Centre. At least 27 people have died and another 12 persons were injured following torrential rains in the 14 districts that are submerged, the report said.

Amidst all this, Sri Lanka experienced the coldest climate during the past few days. The temperature in Colombo dropped to 18.8 centigrades a few days ago which was the lowest recorded in 61 years. The previous coldest weather, 15.2 centigrades was experienced in January 04, 1950.

Although it is not winter like in the temperate zone, Sri Lanka being in the tropical zone faces a rather colder season as the sun shines in full in the Southern Hemisphere. "For the past few weeks Sri Lanka has experienced cloudy skies blocking the sun rays reaching the earth at its maximum. This temperature from the sun warm up the earth and when the heat radiates back, it warms the environment we live in. When we don't receive enough sunshine it won't heat up the earth enough to warm our surroundings," said G.B. Samarasinghe, Director General of the Meterological Department. Cloudy skies could be due to the prevailing atmospheric disturbances over the Bay of Bengal, according to meteorologists.

"This phenomenon we face is due to many reasons. "Samarasinghe said.

As he explained this season not being a cyclonic season, could be the second reason to the present gloomy climate. "This period of the year our part of the world lack ingredients for a cyclonic situation and as a result there is no method for the disturbed air mass to move away from the country thus makes is linger around the island," he explained further.

The third reason could be the La Nina phenomenon occurring over the pacific ocean, he explained. During of La Nina, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal. La Nina, sometimes informally called "anti-El Nino" (the opposite of El Nino) where the latter corresponds instead to a higher sea surface temperature. At the other side of the Pacific La Nina can cause heavy rains.

All these factors could lead to this unusual cold weather condition. While Colombo recorded the lowest temperature of 18.8 centigrades after 61 years other areas in the southern part of Sri Lanka recorded much colder. Nuwara Eliya recorded 7.9 degree centigrades. And the flood hit Batticaloa district experienced 16.9 degree centigrades.

Hambantota, Ratnapura, Kandy and Anuradhapura districts were around 3 degrees below the average level and the Kurunegala district was 6 degrees below the average. Sri Lanka's Northern Province too experienced the effects of this cold climate. Temperature in Jaffana and Vavuniya on 13 January had been 3 to 4 degrees below the average level.

Though Sri Lanka do not experience heavy rains during this time of the year and the North East Monsoon is not too vigorous, the Eastern Province is having high rainfalls due to these atmospheric disturbances causing these flash floods. On 08 January, Batticaloa recorded the third highest with a rainfall of 312.3 millimetres. The highest ever recorded daily rainfall for Batticaloa was on 05 December 1967 which was 330.7 millimetres.

"The average rainfall Batticaloa should get within the month of January is around 210.3 millimetres. But from January 1 -12 this year Batticaloa received 1,148.5 millimetres of rainfall," Samarasinghe said.

The ever recorded highest monthly rainfall for January in Batticaloa was 1,365 millimetres that was reported in 1913.

This climate system affected by the disturbances in the Bay of Bengal will continue to linger around the country for another few weeks with less severity, Samarasinghe said.