Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in the Southern and Uva provinces and in the Ratnapura and Ampara districts on Tuesday, with fairly heavy falls above 75 mm at some places, the Department of Meteorology said in a statement.
Elsewhere on the island, showers or thundershowers may develop at a few places after 1:00 p.m., Hiru News reported, citing the department’s advisory.
The department asked the public to take the steps needed to reduce the risk of harm from the temporary strong winds and lightning that can accompany thundershowers.
Misty conditions are also expected at some places in the Sabaragamuwa, Central and Uva provinces during the morning hours.
A fourth consecutive day above the 75mm threshold
Tuesday’s advisory keeps the rainfall warning at the same level the department has held through the current wet spell. The threshold was raised to above 75 mm on 1 November as Cyclone Murasu intensified in the Bay of Bengal, and it has not come down since, though the area covered has narrowed from six provinces to two provinces and two districts.
That matters because the ground is already saturated. Reservoirs across the island have been releasing water for more than a week, four spill gates were opened at Deduru Oya on Monday at 2,800 cubic feet per second, and the river has since overflowed far enough to suspend Northern Line train services between Wellawa and Ganewatta. Health authorities have separately warned of disease risk as floodwaters recede.
A note on the wording
The department’s term is “fairly heavy” rain — the standard Sri Lankan forecasting phrase for this band — not “heavy rain”, which denotes a higher category. Hiru’s Sinhala filing uses the corresponding term, තරමක තද වැසි. The distinction is worth preserving because the two phrases carry different operational meanings for disaster-response agencies.
Not reported
The advisory as carried does not name the specific districts within the Southern and Uva provinces most at risk, give a validity period or expiry time for the warning, or state whether any landslide early-warning alert from the National Building Research Organisation is in force alongside it. Ada Derana carried the same forecast on Tuesday, but the site has been returning a CloudFront 403 to this desk for roughly fifty days and its filing could not be fetched or dated, so it is not cited here.