The Department of Meteorology has placed five provinces and the Mannar District under an Amber-level severe lightning advisory valid until 11.30 p.m. on Thursday, warning of thundershowers, severe lightning and brief localised strong winds.
The advisory was issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre at 10.30 a.m. and covers the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva, Eastern and North Central provinces and the Mannar District, the Daily Mirror reported. Thundershowers accompanied by severe lightning are likely at several locations within those areas.
How much rain, and when
A separate Met Department statement the same day set out the day’s wider pattern and the expected rainfall totals. Conditions were described as favourable for evening thundershowers across much of the island, with rain or thundershowers possible after 1.00 p.m. in most areas, Hiru News reported.
In that statement the department identified the same five provinces and Mannar District as the areas where fairly heavy falls above 75 millimetres could occur at certain locations — the quantitative counterpart to the lightning advisory’s qualitative warning. Read together, the two notices point to the same band of the country: the hill country and the eastern and north-central dry zone, plus the north-west coastal district of Mannar.
Safety guidance
The department advised the public to:
- Remain indoors during thunderstorms
- Avoid sheltering under trees
- Stay away from open areas, including paddy fields, tea plantations and open water bodies
- Avoid using wired telephones and electrical appliances connected to the power supply during thunderstorms
Lightning is a recurring cause of death and injury in Sri Lanka, particularly among people working in open paddy land and on plantations during the inter-monsoon months — which is why open ground, rather than rainfall totals, dominates the department’s advice.
On reading this advisory. Amber lightning advisories are issued frequently and the wording changes little between them, so the areas named are what distinguish one from the next. This notice covers Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva, Eastern and North Central provinces plus Mannar, and expires at 11.30 p.m. on 1 October; it is not the advisory issued the previous day, which covered a different and smaller group of districts.
