It is chilly due to cloud absence at night

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

The cold weather in most parts of the country, specially in the morning, is due to the absence of cloud presence in the sky at night, a Meteorology Department duty forecaster said. "When there are no clouds in the sky, heat near the earth's surface rises and escapes into the high atmosphere. Because of that, the surface temperature becomes less," he said.

The duty forecaster said that another reason for the cold weather in the morning was the dry wind from the Northern direction across the Indian Ocean.

"As a result of this, the moisture in the air would increase. Because of that, ground frost can also be expected in some areas, particularly during the mornings," he said.

The temperature in many areas is comparatively low these days. The lowest temperature was reported yesterday from Nuwara Eliya (2.7 Celsius). The average temperature in the Colombo district was just over 22 Celsius. he said.

Meanwhile, S.M. Jiffry Abdeen, our Kandy south group correspondent reported that Kandy experienced extremely chilly conditions on Sunday night and yesterday morning.

A resident living in Hantana, said that the temperature dropped to around 12 degrees centigrade yesterday morning.

Some areas which experienced the drop in temperature were areas closer to the Mahaweli river such as Katugastotai Pogolla, Lewella, Watapuluwa, Mawalmada, Peradeniya, Halloluwa and Tenakumbara. There was also unconfirmed reports of a little ground frost from the Uduwela and Galaha areas.

Visitors from Nuwara Eliya returning to Kandy on Monday morning confirmed that it was extremely chilly in the night.