Abstract:
The main objective of this paper is to find some concrete evidence of changing
pattern of air temperature in Sri Lanka using secondary data available in different
government and non-government organizations.
The daily air temperature data (during the period 1961-2001) collected from the
Meteorological Department and daily surface temperature data (during the period
1881-1981) collected from the NASA web site are the main data sources.
2
In addition to the GIS techniques such as surface interpolation, summarized by
zones and geo-statistics, Regression and Time-series Analysis were used to achieve
the set objectives.
The study identified that the average temperature has increased in some areas
such as Nuwara-Eliya, Anuradhapura, Colombo, Maha-Illuppallama, Hambanthota
and Angunukolapalassa in Sri Lanka whilst some observatories depicted a declining
trend of temperature and the area under high temperature is expanding.
