Weather and Climate

This page provides a basic introduction to seasonal climate, related maps, weather forecasts and climatologies.

After enduring an extended drought, the Maha season rainfall from October to December has been higher than normal. This is typical during a year with warm equatorial Eastern Pacific Ocean conditions known as El Nino. Heavy rainfall in the Northern and Eastern coastal districts in the early weeks of this December led to flooding along the North-Eastern coast. (UNDP Situation Report.) The Ampara, Batticaloa and Mullaitivu districts were the worst affected with 73000, 61000 and 13000 persons displaced by floods on the 15th of December. The heavy rainfall has persisted intermittently right up to the new year. As is typical during this period, the Eastern coastal and Eastern hillslopes region and the North-Eastern coast receive relatively more rainfall than the West. Unfortunately, this is also the region worst affected by the Tsunami and the continued heavy rainfall is hindering emergency relief and recovery.

Sri Lanka Rainfall Climatology

	Inundation Map of North and East of Sri Lanka - December 17-21, 2004 (Dartmouth Flood Observatory)
	Inundation Map of Southern Sri Lanka - December 26, 2004 (Dartmouth Flood Observatory)

Climatologies

Local monthly means of temperature and precipitation for the Indian Ocean Region from the IRI (click on a point of interest)

January Rainfall Climatology

January Temperature Climatology

Monitored Conditions

Regional monitoring of weekly and monthly precipitation and temperature from the Climate Prediction Center (click on a region)

Seasonal Predictions for January through March

The seasonal predictions show a tendency for anomalously warmer temperature in Aceh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives (except for Gan), Thailand and Southern India. A tendency towards drier than normal conditions is predicted for Thailand, Sri Lanka and Eastern Indonesia. 

	January to March Rainfall from the IRI
	January to March Temperature from the IRI