The Meteorological Department said the severe cyclonic storm ‘Lehar’ remained more or less stationary over the Bay of Bengal but would not have a direct impact on Sri Lanka.

It is said to be located 200 km to the northeast of Jaffna and is moving towards India.

Meteorologist Dulari Fernando said however, some showers or thundershowers would occur at several places in the Western and Southern provinces on Thursday or Friday while fairly strong winds could be expected over the country and neighboring sea areas.

Meanwhile Indian weather officials said they were on the alert for a possible cyclonic storm that appears to be gathering strength and might head towards Sri Lanka.

The Indian media reported, that a leading US-based storm tracker suspects India’s south-east coast might not yet have seen the last storm of the ongoing North-East monsoon season.

It projects a scenario where the warm seas in the south-east Bay of Bengal, which link Sumatra (Indonesia) and Sri Lanka, spinning up the next storm.
Initial forecasts suggest that the likely storm heading towards northern most part of Sri Lanka and adjoining south-east Tamil Nadu coast. (Darshana Sanjeewa-DM Online)