Climate change in the hill country of Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper describes an analysis of long term changes in precipitation and temperature over 5 stations in the hill country of Sri Lanka during the period 1869 – 2006. The trend is predicted by a least squares regression analysis and the significance of the observed trend is calculated by using the Mann Kendall technique. The results suggest that there is a statistically significant reduction in annual rainfall, particularly that of the South West monsoon (385 mm over the last 100 years) and advocates the need for better planning and rationalization. In particular, the reduction in rainfall is leading to low yields and drop in productivity in tea plantations. The mean annual temperature has also increased by more than 1°C in Nuwara Eliya. Contribution to annual temperate increase is higher from the North East monsoon period compared to the South East monsoon period.