Rainy weather to continue

The Department of Meteorology said the prevailing rainy weather conditions were due to a disturbed condition in the regular North East Monsoon, and that it would prevail in varying degrees throughout the week.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, an official of the department said that the country had experienced island wide showers yesterday.

He said that Monaragala had received the highest rainfall (of 123 mm), while Badulla, Balangoda and Piduruthalagala, also experienced heavy rain.

He said showers or heavy thundershowers could be expected today in the North-Central,  Eastern, Uva, Central and Southern Provinces. Showers or thundershowers, accompanied at times by fairly strong winds, would continue in the seas off the coast of Sri Lanka extending from Matara to Trincomalee via Hambantota.

The Disaster Management Centre issued landslide warnings  regarding certain areas in Nuwara Eliya and Badulla in the event the rain continues.
The spill gates of Parakrama Samudraya in Polonnaruwa were opened.

Irrigations officers said that 12 spill gates of the Kavudulla Reservoir and seven of the Minneriya Tank had been opened to allow the excess water to flow out. They said that if heavy rains continued, they would have to increase the rate at which the water was released.

Due to the heavy rains and the overflowing of reservoirs, a vast acreage of paddy in the Polonnaruwa District that was to be harvested for the Maha season has gone under water. (Hafeel Farisz and K.G. Karunarathne)