Rain or thundershowers are likely in many parts of the island after 1.00 p.m. on Monday, the Department of Meteorology says, with falls above 75 mm possible at some locations.
The heavier rain is expected in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva provinces and in the Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee and Mullaitivu districts, Hiru News reported at 6.29 a.m.
Rain may also fall in the Western and Northern provinces and in the coastal areas of the Galle district during the morning, with misty conditions at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva provinces. The department asked the public to take steps to minimise the dangers of the temporary strong winds and lightning that can accompany thundershowers.
Read both lines of the area list
The forecast names four provinces and then four districts separately, and the districts do not sit inside the provinces listed. Kurunegala appears without the North Western Province; Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee without the North Central and Eastern Provinces; and Mullaitivu without the Northern Province — though the Northern Province is named separately for morning rain.
A reader who took only the province list would miss four districts. The same split caught out the 15 October advisory, where Colombo was covered as a district while its province was not.
At sea
NewsFirst reported on Monday morning that the department had warned that sea areas from Chilaw to Hambantota via Colombo and Galle could become very rough at times, with wind speeds rising to 60–70 km/h. Fishing and naval communities were urged to remain vigilant.
That filing does not give the sea advisory’s issue time or the period it runs for.
The severe-lightning advisory in Monday’s filing had already expired
The same NewsFirst report, published at 8.16 a.m. on Monday, also carried an advisory for severe lightning in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, North Central, Eastern and Uva provinces and the Kurunegala, Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu districts.
That is the amber advisory the department issued at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday, and it ran only until 1.00 a.m. on Monday — about seven hours before the filing appeared. It is not the advisory in force for Monday daytime.
The two area lists are visibly different, which is how the distinction can be checked: North Central and Eastern provinces and the Jaffna and Vavuniya districts appear in Sunday’s advisory but not in Monday’s forecast, while Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee appear in Monday’s and not Sunday’s. The lightning risk itself has not gone away — Monday’s forecast carries its own warning about lightning with thundershowers — but the specific amber advisory for six provinces and four districts had lapsed.
A wet spell with a record
The rain continues a sustained wet period that has already produced damage. A landslide at Haputale and rising water in the Kirindi Oya were reported on Sunday, a rockfall struck a bus at Kadugannawa on 17 October, and health authorities have linked a rise in dengue cases to the rainy weather.
