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Blown away
By Renu Warnasuriya and Lakmali Jayasinghe
Huge trees uprooted. Shattered pieces of asbestos lying around. Houses with broken walls and roofs blown off. Such was the destruction left behind last Sunday when for five to ten minutes the people of Kotahena, Mattakkuliya and Modera were literally blown away by a tornado.

"There was a loud noise," says Sajeewa Prasanna, a resident of Mattakkuliya. His description of what he saw was, "wind that was moving upwards while revolving." According to him the wind was so strong that it uprooted trees and dislodged asbestos roofing. Household appliances were "floating in the air."

Lakmal, a ten-year-old who was running for shelter, was blown off his feet and landed a few feet away. "I was outside, feeding my child when the wind hit," says Udeni, another Mattakkuliya resident. Though she managed to get inside her house, she had difficulty closing the door since a barrel came flying and lodged against it. Most of the residents sought refuge in the largest house in the area, the only one with a concrete roof. "We were praying that no one would be hurt," said Somalatha, another eyewitness.

Seetha Withanawasam, also from an affected area, said that there was a lot of lightning and then a dust storm. Parts of the roof of her house were blown off.
A tornado originates from a thunderstorm. Thus any area which experiences thunderstorms may experience tornados. When all the clouds are confined to one area and there is little rain the previous day, a tornado is likely, as all the water vapour is concentrated in this area.

Deputy Director of the Forecasting Division of the Meteorological Department Mr. G.B. Samarasinghe explaining the phenomenon said that since there is a low-pressure area in the storm cloud above, the air is sucked in from the high-pressure area below. Along with this air goes everything else. In USA in1931, a train carriage weighing up to 83 tons with 117 people on board was lifted and dropped 20 metres away.

“The wind forms a kind of a funnel, known as the trunk of the tornado. The path the tornado takes depends on the storm cloud. It is somewhat affected by the revolving of the tornado itself. Most tornados revolve anti-clockwise but some revolve clockwise. Tornados in our region travel at a speed of 300 km per hour and last for about 5-15 minutes. It can affect an area of about 1km² or less. The speed of the wind and the fact that it revolves is what causes severe damage.”

Mr. Samarasinghe says that Sri Lanka has experienced at least four such tornados this year. Recent climate changes have caused an increase in natural phenomena, thus tornados too have become more frequent. But tornados in our region are comparatively rare and less severe than in other parts of the world, he says.

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