The meteorological drought affecting the Western and Northern division is expected to continue, with the recent rainfall not enough to break the dry spell.
Director Meteorological Services, Ravind Kumar says the forecast for the next three months is for little to less than average rain which with rising temperatures is expected to further prolong the dry season.
“As we see in September, the pattern has started to change gradually and we’ve seen that some rain has been coming over, however the rains are not hitting the land areas but there are mostly happening over the oceans.”
Kumar says at least 200 milliliters of rainfall is needed to quench the drought and that’s not expected until November when the cyclone season begins.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Rural and Maritime Development and the National Disaster Management Office has as of this week carted 1.3 million liters of water out to the Western and Northern Divisions.
