(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –The centre of the tropical cyclone Amphan is now 900 kilometres away from Sri Lanka’s Trincolmalee coast on May 19, but it has been upgraded to a Super Cyclonic Storm, the meteorological department said.
“Due to the influence of the system, the prevailing showery condition over the island particularly in the south-western part is likely to continue further,” the met department said in a forecast issued at 0530h.
“Heavy showers above 100 mm are likely at some places. Wind speed can increase up to (50-60) kmph at times over the island. Cloudy skies can be expected over the island.
“Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in Southern, Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and North-western provinces with isolated heavy showers above 100 mm in Nuwara-Eliya, Kandy, Matale, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Galle and Matara districts.”
A day earlier the storm was 600 kilometres away from Trincomlee.
America NASA has released pictures of vapor data from the storm taken by its Aqua satellite when it passed over the Northern Indian Ocean on May 18. At the time Amphan was equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, NASA said.
Sri Lanka has issued landslide warnings for several districts and there and strong winds had also partially destroyed 192 houses by May 18, with 145 in Polonnaruwa, the disaster management centre said.
