The Department of Meteorology has issued an “Amber” advisory for heavy rain affecting the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-Western provinces and the Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle and Matara districts.
The advisory was issued on Saturday (1) and remains in effect until 6.00 a.m. on Sunday (2). Rainfall above 100 mm is likely at some places within the advisory area, the department said.
In its separate morning forecast, the department said the rainy and windy conditions over the south-western parts of the island would continue through Saturday, driven by the active south-west monsoon. Showers will occur at times across the same provinces and districts covered by the advisory, with a few showers also expected in the Matale, Anuradhapura and Hambantota districts. Mainly dry weather will prevail elsewhere.
Strong winds of about 40-50 kmph can be expected at times over the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Northern, North-Central, Central and North-Western provinces and in the Monaragala and Trincomalee districts.
Update (August 1, afternoon): wind areas revised
The Met Department issued a fresh strong-wind advisory in the early afternoon with a changed list of affected areas. Winds of 40-50 kmph are now expected in the Northern, North-Central, North-Western, Sabaragamuwa and Central provinces and in the Monaragala, Hambantota and Trincomalee districts — dropping the Western and Southern provinces named in the morning bulletin and adding the Hambantota district. The department again attributed the winds to the active south-west monsoon.
The heavy-rain component was unchanged: rainfall above 100 mm remains possible at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-Western provinces and in the Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle and Matara districts.
The rain has already produced consequences on the ground. The Mahaweli River burst its banks at Peradeniya and Nawalapitiya, submerging a bridge repair site and sixteen houses.
What an Amber advisory means
Amber is the Met Department’s middle warning level, indicating conditions capable of disrupting daily activity. Rainfall above 100 mm in a single day is enough to cause localised flooding and to raise landslide risk in the hill country, particularly around Kandy and Nuwara Eliya and in Ratnapura, where slopes saturate quickly. The National Building Research Organisation issues separate landslide warnings when its own thresholds are crossed.
The new advisory takes over from an Amber advisory for strong winds issued on Friday, which lapsed at 11.00 a.m. on Saturday. It extends a wet spell that has already produced a forecast of showers above 100 mm over broadly the same area on Friday.
The rain is confined to the south-west, and the contrast with the rest of the island remains stark. Wilpattu National Park is parched by drought, and a dry spell around Dambulla has cut vegetable supply — the two-zone pattern in which the south-west takes monsoon rain while the dry zone waits for the north-east monsoon later in the year.
