The sun will be directly over the latitudes of Sri Lanka from Friday, 28 August, until 7 September, the Department of Meteorology has announced, as it continues its apparent southward motion across the sky.
The department said the sun will be directly overhead the Kokkuvil, Nallur, Kodikamam and Nagarkovil areas at 12:11 pm on Friday, Hiru News reported. All four are on the Jaffna peninsula, at the northern end of the island.
The Daily Mirror and NewsFirst both carried the announcement on Friday morning, giving the same time and the same four locations and confirming the 7 September end date. NewsFirst attributed it to Meril Mendis, the department’s Director of Forecasting.
The second passage of the year
Sri Lanka lies entirely within the tropics, so the sun crosses its latitudes twice a year rather than once. The two passages run in opposite directions.
In April the sun was travelling north, and reached the southern coast first: it stood directly over Dodanduwa, Rathgama, Yakkalamulla, Akuressa, Mulgirigala, Ranna, Kalamatiya and Ussangoda at 12:13 pm on 5 April, as reported at the time, before working its way up the island.
The current passage runs the other way. Beginning over the far north on Friday, it moves south over the following ten days, leaving the island at its southern tip on 7 September. That ordering is consistent with the sun’s declination falling steadily between the June solstice and the September equinox.
Overlapping with a heat advisory
Friday’s zenith passage over the Jaffna peninsula coincides with a Met Department warm weather advisory for the same day, which places Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Polonnaruwa, Monaragala and the Eastern Province at the “Caution” level on the heat index — with Jaffna and Kilinochchi returning to the list after dropping off it earlier in the week.
The overhead passage does not by itself cause a spike in temperature, since the hottest part of the day typically lags solar noon and cloud cover, humidity and wind matter more. It does mean near-vertical sunlight and very short shadows around midday, and minimal shade for anyone working outdoors at that hour.
The advisory sits within a prolonged dry spell affecting districts across the north, north-central and east.
A split forecast on the same day
The zenith passage began on a day whose forecast pulled in two directions. Alongside the heat advisory for the north and east, the department expected fairly heavy rain exceeding 75 mm at some places in the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in the Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle and Matara districts, with showers at times across the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern and North-Western provinces.
The two lists overlap at the edges rather than contradicting each other. Ampara and Batticaloa sit on the heat-index list and were also due afternoon thundershowers, while the districts carrying the heaviest rain — in the south-west and the central hills — are not on it at all. The dry spell is concentrated in the north, east and south-east, and a wet day in Galle does not reach it.
NewsFirst reported the same announcement within a wider account of the drought, putting the heat index at the level requiring attention in eight districts — Trincomalee, Ampara, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Monaragala and Jaffna — and noting that El Niño conditions have now affected more than 84,500 people across seven districts, with Monaragala worst hit.
