26/10/15

Sri Lanka ready for El Niño

Copyright: Amantha Perera

By: Amantha Perera

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Sri Lanka ready for El Niño</h1>
<h4>By: Amantha Perera</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>[COLOMBO]  Sri Lankan officials say the country is prepared to face the El Niño weather phenomenon in the last quarter of 2015 and take precautions based on the experience of the recent past.</p>
<p>Temperatures have remained above average this year and a prolonged dry spell has left over 200,000 in the Northern Province thirsting for safe drinking <a href="http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/environment/water/" target="_parent" rel="noopener noreferrer">water</a>. But, officials at the Meteorological Department (MD) and the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) say the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/vv8noz149o6m1y5/Current-Sitiation.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impacts</a> are manageable.</p>
<p>According to global weather forecasts the periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean called El Niño has now set in with most predicting it to be similar in strength to an occurrence in 1997. “The strong El Niño is expected to last until at least the end of the year before declining in the first quarter of 2016,” the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said in an <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">update</a> on 13 October.</p>
<p>However, some <a href="http://www.unocha.org/el-ni%C3%B1o/rainfall-and-el-ni%C3%B1o" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">assessments</a> also predict that South Asia was likely to receive above average rains in late 2015. “Countries on the equator can expect more rain, flooding and higher sea levels as El Niño takes hold,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.<br />
<div class="related_widget"><h3 class="widgettitle">You might also like</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/column/south-asia-must-plan-for-truant-monsoons/">South Asia must plan for truant monsoons</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/news/south-asia-reacts-slow-to-monsoon-forecasts/">South Asia ‘reacts slow’ to monsoon forecasts</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/news/el-nino-may-lead-to-rice-shortfall/">El Niño may lead to rice shortfall</a></li><li><a href="https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/news/weakening-monsoons-over-south-asia/">Weakening monsoons over South Asia</a></li></ul></div><br />
“We have analysed  past weather patterns when El Niño was active and what we have seen is that in the last quarter of the year rains, in fact, increase in this part of the globe,” says L. Chandrapala, director-general of the MD. “More rains in the last quarter of the year would be welcome following a weak South West Monsoon — the monsoon was below 75 per cent this year.”</p>
<p>The failure of the rains and high temperatures have caused ground water resources to dwindle in the Northern Province. Over the last two months, the DMC has been supporting local authorities to deliver water to the worst-hit communities.</p>
<p>But, Chandrapala says Sri Lanka is now better prepared to deal with fluctuating climate trends that have resulted in frequent extreme weather events. “It is about long-term planning — we are better prepared than we were five years back.”</p>
<p>“So far, there is no sign that things will worsen, we have not received any warnings from the MD or the agriculture department of major crop losses,” Pradeep Koddiplili, DMC deputy director, tells <em>SciDev.Net</em>.</p>
<p>Sri Lanka has seen five major floods and four major droughts since 2010, attributed by <a href="http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/environment/climate-change/" target="_parent" rel="noopener noreferrer">changing climate</a>.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/" target="_parent" rel="noopener noreferrer">This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's South Asia desk.</a></em></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/news/sri-lanka-ready-for-el-nino/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/news/sri-lanka-ready-for-el-nino/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[COLOMBO] Sri Lankan officials say the country is prepared to face the El Niño weather phenomenon in the last quarter of 2015 and take precautions based on the experience of the recent past.

Temperatures have remained above average this year and a prolonged dry spell has left over 200,000 in the Northern Province thirsting for safe drinking water. But, officials at the Meteorological Department (MD) and the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) say the impacts are manageable.

According to global weather forecasts the periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean called El Niño has now set in with most predicting it to be similar in strength to an occurrence in 1997. “The strong El Niño is expected to last until at least the end of the year before declining in the first quarter of 2016,” the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said in an update on 13 October.

However, some assessments also predict that South Asia was likely to receive above average rains in late 2015. “Countries on the equator can expect more rain, flooding and higher sea levels as El Niño takes hold,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.

“We have analysed past weather patterns when El Niño was active and what we have seen is that in the last quarter of the year rains, in fact, increase in this part of the globe,” says L. Chandrapala, director-general of the MD. “More rains in the last quarter of the year would be welcome following a weak South West Monsoon — the monsoon was below 75 per cent this year.”

The failure of the rains and high temperatures have caused ground water resources to dwindle in the Northern Province. Over the last two months, the DMC has been supporting local authorities to deliver water to the worst-hit communities.

But, Chandrapala says Sri Lanka is now better prepared to deal with fluctuating climate trends that have resulted in frequent extreme weather events. “It is about long-term planning — we are better prepared than we were five years back.”

“So far, there is no sign that things will worsen, we have not received any warnings from the MD or the agriculture department of major crop losses,” Pradeep Koddiplili, DMC deputy director, tells SciDev.Net.

Sri Lanka has seen five major floods and four major droughts since 2010, attributed by changing climate.

This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's South Asia desk.