SRI LANKA

High mountains occupy the south-central part of the

country with altitude up to

2,524m

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Total land area of Sri Lanka 65,610 Km2

Population – 20 million (2012)

The existing meteorological network

23 Synoptic Meteorological Stations

37 Automatic Weather Stations

35 Agro-Meteorological Stations

350 Rain-gauge Stations

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Availability of Historical Climate Data

Climate Data available from 1861Uninterrupted climate data series available from 1861- to date at 12

meteorological stations

Rainfall data available from the 19th Century available for over 150 rain-gauge stations

Except for daily rainfall and temperature data of all the stations, the balance data sets are still

not digitized.

The status of the data files are so poor and therefore their recovery and digitization is an issue which need tackled

urgently and with expert care !

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How data records are stored

All the data records were stored until very recently in a Record Room with no proper ventilation, humidity/temperature control.

During the last few years the Record Room was upgraded with Temperature/humidity control

BUT due to poor storage conditions prior to upgrading, some of the data files are in a very poor condition.

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Principal Meteorological Stations

Agrometeorological Stations

Raingauge Stations

Present-dayMeteorological

Station Network

in Sri Lanka

Upper Air Stations

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View of the Record Room of the Department of Meteorology

During the last two years, managed to improve the condition of the record room

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Even turning pages of these bound records results in

permanent damage

The present condition of these data files (most are

bound) are very poor !

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The present status of some of the charts of the 19th Century

observations

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Detail of Availabile Climate Data

Already Digitized No. of Daily rainfall Records ≈ 13.5 million No. of Daily Temperature (Max Min) ≈ 1.6 million

Details of non-digitized paper based infomations

Instruments charts

Daily Observation Books with 3-hourly obsevation

Approximately 17,500 months of records(a record of a months spans 8-10 pages.)

Element Approximate No. of years

Chart type Total No. of charts available

Year of the earliest chart

Temperature 990 Daily 361350 1898Humidity 990 Daily 361350 1909Rainfall 1050 Daily 383250 1898Pressure 980 Daily 357700 1900Others 60 daily 21900 -

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Gaps & Needs

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Gaps & Needs

Resources and Technology –

.. Governments have other priority issues

.. Meteorological services are run with very tight

budgets Technological issues

It is not just an issue of scanning these paper records. Due to poor quality of paper files, not possible to use ordinary scanners !

In 1990s, several attempts were made to scan the data files. Due to poor quality of files, these efforts resulted in failures.

Gaps & Needs….. Therefore, we need technical guidance with expert and financial assistance from WMO or its partner agency (CCI, GFCS etc.) care to : - preserve and store the records in well-organized manner - rescue & digitize (or imaging) the remaining climate records/chars - file management of digitized data & images. - proper data-base management system.

The other gap we are facing is insufficient human resources in the Department. this can be overcome by hiring capable manpower from private agency or university.

CLICOM system was given by the WMO with necessary training and required software.Then CLIMSOFT was introduced and initially technical support was given.Then no more technical guidance for these systems.