The high annual occurrence of widespread drought in Sri Lanka, a small tropical island close to the equator, shows the critical impact of warm climate conditions. It is also important to note that major droughts occurred in 1992 and 2001. A look at the seasonal distribution shows that droughts occur largely in the month of August. With respect to the spatial distribution, areas most affected appear to be the districts of Kurunegala, Puttalam, Hambantota, Moneragala and Ampara. People were most affected by severe droughts that occurred in the years of 2001 and 2004. The spatial impacts of agricultural loss from droughts followed a similar pattern as people affected. However, high agricultural losses were reported in the years 2001 and 2004, while large losses were also recorded in the year 1987. Some impacts reflected at the DS division level have been somewhat low, which can be attributed to the limited availability of disaggregated data at this level. Read more........

Wind events seem to be most prevalent in the latter years, with the largest occurring in the year 2007. Further, the wind events in Sri Lanka are most likely to occur in the months of June and November. With respect to spatial distribution, wind events are most prevalent in the districts of Rathnapura, Badulla, Anuradhapura, and Colombo. People in Sri Lanka have not been very much affected by wind events. However, an exception to this is the years 1978 and 2000. Further, people located in the districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee and Batticaloa have been most affected by wind events. The occurrence of deaths due to wind events is quite low except for the year 1978, where it has reached nearly 850. Further, deaths appear to have occurred mostly in the district of Batticaloa. Destroyed and damaged houses also cannot be seen very much due to wind events, the exception to this being the large damage in the year 1978 and 2000 due to the two extremely severe events in these two years. Further, houses located in the districts of Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa appear to have been most affected due to wind events. Agricultural crop loss also seems to be somewhat low, with most losses taking place in 1989 and 2000. Further, most of the agricultural losses appear to occur in the districts of Moneragala, Ampara, Polonnaruwa and Trincomalee. Some impacts reflected in terms of DS divisions have been somewhat low, which can be attributed to the limited availability or unavailability of disaggregated data at the level of DS Divisions. Read more........