WEATHER ALERT : heavy rain and lightning advisory

Colombo (News1st) - The  Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre of the Meteorology Department this morning (20th May) issues a heavy rain and lightning advisory for the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Central provinces as well as the districts of Galle and Matara. The met department forecasts very heavy falls about 150mm in the Sabaragamuwa province and heavy falls above 100 mm can be expected at some places in other above-mentioned areas. The met department has also noted that due to the active cloudiness in the sea area to the West, South-west and South of Sri Lanka, Showers or thundershowers will occur in the sea areas off the coast extending from Puttalam to Hambantota via Colombo and Galle. The possibility for sudden roughness, associated with a sudden increase of wind speed (up to 70-80 kmph) in the sea areas in the above sea area is high. Sea area extending from Puttalam to Kankasanturai via Mannar and from Matara to Potuvil via Hambantota can be rough at times as the wind speed can increase up to 60 kmph at times.