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CONTENT

❑ Introduction

❑ Climate of Sri Lanka

❑ Natural Hazards in Sri Lanka

❑ National Weather Service

Department of Meteorology

❑ Challenges and Gap

❑ Hydro-met modernization Investment and plan

❑ Summary

Weather and Climate Services in Sri Lanka1

20.1 million PopulationDensity : 320 Sq. km

9 Provinces (25 districts)Area : 65,610 Sq. km

Capital : Sri Jayawardenepura KotteLanguages : Sinhala, Tamil Per capita : $ 4,310

ASIA

SRI LANKAA Small Island in the Indian Ocean

2 Weather and Climate Services in Sri Lanka

CLIMATE OF SRI LANKA

3

Tropical and Monsoonal

Two seasonal monsoonal wind regimes

Changing Wind Flow during the year by

180 degrees across the Country Sri Lanka is an island in the tropics

Weather and Climate Services in Sri Lanka

TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE


Topography

The topography of the island is consists of;

Coastal plains,

Central mountainous massif

Lowland hills

The central massif rises up to a maximum elevation of 2,524m at Pidurutalagala.

Mid Climate

Average Rainfall : 1860 mm/year

Range of rainfall : 950 – 6000 mm

Mean Temperature : 27.5 C (lowlands)

Lower Temperatures in the highlands


CLIMATIC ZONES


Three Climatic Zones are identified based on Annual Precipitation (R)

• Dry zone : R < 1750mm

• Intermediate zone : 1750 mm < R < 2500mm• Wet zone : R > 2500 mm

CLIMATE SEASONS IN SRI LANKA

6

1. Southwest Monsoon (SWM) : May – September

2. Northeast Monsoon (NEM) : December-February

3. First Inter-monsoon (FIM) : March-April

4. Second Inter-monsoon (SIM) : October-November

➢ The two monsoon essentially determine the seasonality of SL

➢ The seasons are distinguished only by means of the timing of the two monsoons

and the transitional periods separating them, called inter-monsoon seasons


NEMDecember -February

SWMMay - September

FOUR RAIN SEASONS

7

Seasons Southwest

Monsoon

Northeast

Monsoon

First

Inter-monsoon

Second

Inter-monsoon

Period May-Sep Dec-Feb Mar-Apr Oct-Nov

Rainfall (Average) 556 mm 479 mm 268 mm 558 mm

% of Annual

Average30% 26% 14% 30%

30 Year Climatological Average (1961-1990)

HAZARDS IN SRI LANKA

8

People affected by different disasters in Sri Lanka (1974-2004)

Source: Disaster Management Center - Sri Lanka


Sri Lanka being in the path of two monsoons is mostly

affected by weather related hazards

CLIMATIC EXTREMES


Frequency of climate extremes, especially those related to rainfall has increased

Some of the highest rainfalls (24H) have

been experienced during the last two

decades

e.g. 493 mm at Colombo 1992

725 mm at Deniyaya 2003

522 mm at Kudawa 2003

338 mm at Ratnapura 2003

440 mm at Colombo 2010

337 mm at Kandy 2012

316 mm at Kurunegala 2012

512 mm at Udugoda 2013

348 mm at Norton 2014

359 mm at Mannar 2015

380 mm at Iranamadu 2016

643 mm at Labugama 2017

Leading not only to Floods

But also to severe Landslides

(significant increase in landslides)

CLIMATIC EXTREMES


Highest 24H Rainfall in Colombo on yearly basis from 1869

493.7 mmJune 4, 1992

440.2 mmNov 10, 2010

More and more extreme rain events are experienced.

CLIMATIC EXTREMES


Recently observed weather related hazards

Year Hazard

2010 Flood

2011 Flood/Drought

2012 Flood/Drought

2014 Flood/Drought

2015 Flood

2016 Flood/Drought

2017 Flood/Drought

2018 Flood/Drought

DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY - SRI LANKANational Weather Service

12

VisionA Centre of Excellence in weather and climate related services

MissionTo provide services pertaining to Meteorology, Aeronautical Meteorology, Ocean

Meteorology, Hydro Meteorology, Agricultural Meteorology, Climatology and

Astronomy to government agencies, private sector and the general public in

keeping with national interest and international standards.


• General Forecasting division

• Marine weather forecasting division

• Numerical weather prediction division

• Observation and plotting division

• National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC)

• Communication division

National Early Warning and Meteorological Centre (NMC)

• Meteorological watch office – BIA

• Meteorological offices – MRIA/RMA

Aviation forecasting division

Agro meteorological Division

Radar and Upper air observation division

Electronic division

Centre for Climate Change Studies (CCCS)

Data Archives division

Instrument division

Rainfall and Climate data division

Research division

Establishment/Accounts division

DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY SRI LANKA


Approved Cadre :

Scientific officers 48

Engineering

officer

04

Technological

officers

211

Administrative &

Other staff

197

Total 460

ORGANIZATION SETUP



Services Provided by the Department

❖ Provision of meteorological and climatological services to general public and to agriculture, energy, fishery, shipping, insurance and other interested sectors.

❖ Provision of warnings and advisories on bad weather (including Cyclone, Heavy rain, Lightning, High wind …etc) and Tsunami.

❖ Provision of aviation meteorological services

❖ Maintenance of climatological databases

❖ Provision of meteorological and climatological services and data for national development

and research purposes.

❖ Encourage study and research in meteorology, climatology, climate change and allied subjects

❖ Organize and contribute to, public awareness programmes on weather, climate and climate change thematic areas.

❖ Organize and contribute to, educational and training programs and workshops for interested groups including school children, policy and decision makers, on mandated thematic areas.

❖ Contribute to exhibitions with exhibits and resource personnel.

❖ Provision of specialized meteorological and climatological services on request.

❖ Provision of limited astronomical (sun, moon, planet and tidal) and terrestrial magnetism

related services.



History of Meteorological Network in Sri Lanka (Important Mile Stones)

❑ 1861- Rain Gauge Network

❑ Temperature data are available early 1900’s

❑ At the beginning meteorological service was under the Survey Department

❑ 1948 – Independent institute (Department of Meteorology)

❑ Satellite image receiving System (NOAA USA) – 1973

❑ MSS communication system (2005) – Internet base (TCP/IP)

❑ Automatic Weather System (JICA) – 2009

❑ COMS (KOICA) and FY2 (CHINA) Satellite Receiving System (2011/2012)

❑ Himawari (Japan) satellite receiving system-2017



Present Meteorological data Observing Network

23 Synoptic Stations

4 Upper Air Stations including 3 (three) pilot

balloon stations and one (1) sonde station at

Colombo

(Pilot – only upper air winds)

(sonde – winds, temp and moisture)

Synoptic Stations measure meteorological

parameters every 3 hours

• Temperature

• Rainfall

• Atmospheric Pressure

• Wind speed and Direction

• Relative Humidity etc.




Agro-met Stations (40)

Additional Parameters - 2 times per day

• Evaporation

• Sunshine hours• Soil Temperature• Radiation



Automated Weather Observing System

37 AWS in all over the country including some agro

meteorology stations. Observations can be taken every ten minutes in the digital format on the computer.

Communication method: IP/VPN

M7_20090612.csv




Rain gauge network

Only one time per day

manual rain gauges is approximately 500

manned by voluntary observers



Where We Are Now?



Weather

Prediction

Tells the Future Weather

Condition in different

time scales

Early

Warning

Early warning is a major

element of disaster risk

reduction

Scientific

knowledge and

Technology is

important

Our target is to achieve theses two for better service

for general public and different sectors to contribute economy of Sri Lanka



Weather Forecasting:

Weather forecasting at present in the department is performed using mainly subjective techniqueswith numerical weather products used as guidance. Outputs of numerical weather prediction models of IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD), and European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) are

used extensively as guidance for forecasting at the National Meteorological and Early Warning Centre.

The implementation of an in-house numerical model for Sri Lanka area and neighborhood based on WRFmodel which is a next-generation mesoscale numerical weather prediction system used for both atmosphericresearch and operational forecasting was started in 2015. This local area model which is initialized by theoutput of global model runs at advanced centers is presently used on experimental basis in the departmentfor forecasting up to 5 days ahead with promising results.

Department of Meteorology at present disseminate the seasonal weather forecast to its stakeholdersevery season. This seasonal weather forecast which is developed utilizing output of several advanced globalmodels is used extensively by Agriculture and Irrigation departments in their activities.

Improving capabilities of the Department of Meteorology for accurate weather forecasting at differenttime scales such as nowcasting (00 -02 hrs), very short range (up to 12 hrs), short range (12 hrs - 03 days),medium range (03- 10 days), extended (10-30days) and long range (01 month- 02 yrs including seasonal) andsubsequent early warning services are an extreme necessity.



•Next 1 to 3 days (Short Range Weather Forecast)✓

•Next 3 to 10 days (Medium Range Weather Forecast)

•10 days to 1 month (Extended Medium Range )

•Next month (Long Range Forecast ) ✓

•Next season (Seasonal Forecast ) ✓

•Next 100 years (Climate Projections ) ✓

Dynamical Methods

Statistical and Dynamical Method

Dynamical Methods

Statistical and Dynamical Method

Dynamical Methods

Weather

Prediction



Early

Warning

To minimize the hazards

•Next 6 hours (Very Short Range Weather Forecast)

•Next 1 hour to 3 hour (Now-casting)

To prepare Weather Forecast in above time scales

❑ Doppler Weather Radar

❑ Dense AWS network

❑ Speed Data Communication Technology

❑ Latest technology with instruments

❑ High speed computers

❑ More sophisticated, accurate and reliable Climate data Measuring instrument

❑ Mathematical and Scientific knowledge about Atmosphere and its motion

DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY - SRI LANKA

Challenges and Gaps


Surface Synoptic Observations:

The existing surface synoptic observation networks are not adequate to identify smaller scale weather systems.

Temporal resolution of observations are need be enhance

Upper Air Observations:

Consist only of one solitary station in Colombo.

Establishment of a GPS based radiosonde greatly help in the identification of upper air systems.

Lightning Detection and Tracking:

lightning strikes cause approximately 30 deaths every year. property loss runs into millions of Rupees.

Identification and tracking of severe thunderstorms can be performed from the EWS.

Agro-met Observation:

Existing observation network are need be upgrade with latest technology to observed crop weather relationship to boost agricultural production

Obse

rvati

on N

etw

ork


Challenges and Gaps


Important for better Public Weather Service (PWS) / Early Warnings for DRR

Source : WMO

We are here

Initial steps have been started for

impact-based forecast / warning

DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY - SRI LANKAChallenges and Gaps


Marine Weather Forecasting

▪Sea areas forecast (around the island/International sea) - two times per day

▪3 days forecast (Multiday Boats )-Indian Ocean - once a day

▪10 day forecast - once a day

DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY - SRI LANKAChallenges and Gaps


Marine Weather ForecastingIn terms of production and employment, those fisheries

taking place within the continental shelf and undertaking by fishing craft in single day operation was the dominant sub sector and always made the largest contribution to

the national fish production.

➢ No proper communication system in these vessels

➢ FC and EW deliver to the fishermen is big challenge


Challenges and Gaps


Agriculture

✓ Specialized Weather Forecasts for Agriculture

✓ Agricultural Weather Forecast/Alert

➢ Forecasting for Agricultural

parameters

- growth & development of Crop,

yield, optimum sowing rate, etc..

➢ Application of climatological

parameters

Agrometeological forecast need be

improved

Present

Expected

Landuse Map


Challenges and Gaps


Transportation

Due to adverse weather

18%

other82%

Chart TitleAccidents reported in the

southern expressway during

2012 to 2016

Source :

Sri Lanka Road Development Authority

Impact-based weather

forecast for transportations is

growing demand


Challenges and Gaps


Aviation

Statistics of the Aircraft operation in last decade

International Airport - Katunayake

• To meet growing demand of operations

• To provide timely updating (latest available) met

briefing information/documents

• To respond effectively and efficiently by aviation

met-briefing service interaction with the users.

Met-Briefing system need be upgrade as a

web-based system with latest technology

Source : Civil Aviation Authority – Sri Lanka


Challenges and Gaps


Power and Energy

2017

2018

(Jan-Apr)

2016

Source : Sri Lanka

Electivity Board


Challenges and Gaps


Water and Irrigation

Present

Meteorological support for flood

warning and flood control

operation

Seasonal forecast for

water/irrigation management

Expected

Hydromet inputs for water resources

development and water related

disasters (Flood and Drought)

- Hydroment forecast (QPF)

Probabilistic

rainfall forecast


Challenges and Gaps


Integrated Forecasting System

Output from different meteorological observation systems, numerical weather products, satellite imagery and forecast tools are analyzed separately in arriving at the weather forecast.

Accuracy of the forecast can be improved by developing an integrated forecasting system

Data Collection, Quality Control and Archival system

Meteorological/climatological processing and archival system based on personal computer environment is based on WMO supported CLICOM and CLIMSOFT database management systems.

Public Weather Service

Public Weather Service is to strengthen the capacity and skill to meet the needs of the users through delivery of comprehensive weather services.

Necessary to establish a public weather service system capable of

delivering the user required services.

User Services for Major sectors

Quality of meteorological data and forecast is crucial to ensure the safety of flights.

To enhance the services provided to aviation sector a pilot briefing system with direct web based access is required to be installed at KatunayakeInternational Airport


Challenges and Gaps


Satellite and Communication Revolution

Technology Development

Curve

After InternetBefore Satellite

Era

Time

Gro

wth

Rate

Growth line for SL

Gap

Source : Research division

Department of Meteorology – Sri Lanka


Challenges and Gaps


Gap

High-Tec computer power

We need to fill this gap for some extent


Hydromet Modernization Plan


The expected output of the project :

Increase of the range and quality of services

and products delivered to the end-users

including meteorological and climatological

early warning systems and tailored services

at the national, regional and provincial

levels.


Hydromet Modernization Plan


SC

OP

E O

F T

HE

PR

OJ

EC

T

•Automatic Weather Stations network

•GPS Radio Sounding

•Hydrogen Generators

•Lightning detection and tracking System

•Lightning Data Processing system

Upgrade Observation network

•GTS/WIS Telecommunication System

•Data Collection System

Communication Systems

Data/Information QC and Archival

•Forecaster Workstations

•Web-based Forecaster Workstations

•Pilot Met Briefing Systems

•Climate Database Management system

•PWS and Early Warning System

•Weather System for TV

Integrated Forecasting and PWS/EWS System

•NWP Atmosphere and Ocean models

•NWP Laboratory

Numerical Weather Prediction

Capacity building and infrastructure development


Hydromet Modernization Investments


Two Doppler Radars will be granted by JICA

due to complete in 2021

due to start in 2018




Two Doppler Radars will be granted by JICA

Specification

Antenna

•Type: Horn feed parabolic antenna

•Antenna gain: 45dB or more without Radome

•Polarization: Linear, Dual Polarization (horizontal and vertical)

Transmitter

•Transmitting frequency: 5,860MHz (+5MHz)

•Transmitting power: 5kw peak or higher (each for horizontal and vertical)

•Power amplifier: Full solid-state type




Automated rain gauge project400 automated rain gauges expect

to install cover by whole island

100 rain gauges are now installing

covering by major river basins




Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP)

WRFDA

( 5X5 km)

ModelHorizontal

Resolution

Vertical

levels

Initial/BD

conditions

Forecast length

0000z 0600z 1200z 1800z

WRF 3.8.1 5/15 km 42 GFS 0.5 Full4 days

(99h)

2 days

(81h)

9 days

(240h)

1 day

(33h)

WRF 3.9.1 3/9 km 50 GFS 0.254 days

(99h)

2 days

(81h)

9 days

(240h)

1 day

(33h)





ECMWF data and products –Non commercial agreement from 1st July 2017

SUMMARY


✓ Restructuring of institutional arrangement

✓ Enhance of :

❑ Data observation network

❑ Communication network

❑ Weather Forecasting system

❑ Early Warning system

✓ Allocation of recurrent from national budget ( is a challenge )

✓ Capacity development for meet the requirements of future demand

✓ Strengthen the research capacity

Strengthening hydro-meteorological services and enhances the provision of

essential weather, climate and water related information and services to the

community at large and to key economic sectors following key areas need to be

consider in department of meteorology, Sri Lanka.

Thank You

M. M.P. Mendis

Deputy Director

Department of Meteorology

Sri Lanka

Email: merilmdi@yahoo,com

Tp: +94 11 2682661/+94 71 644 2801

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