Regarding the origins of the Department of Meteorology, which is the oldest institution under the scope of the Ministry of Defense, the first formal meteorological observation in Sri Lanka started in 1867 under the Survey Department. Later in 1909, a separate section called the Colombo Observatory was established for meteorological work in the premises of the present Meteorological Department. The Colombo Observatory was made an independent department in 1948 with the primary objective of providing weather and climate services. At present, the Department of Meteorology is working as the statutory agency of the government to provide services related to meteorology and climate science. Authorized National Agency for Early Warning of Meteorological and Climatological Disasters and Tsunamis.
The main vision of the department is to be the best intelligence center providing weather and climate services in Sri Lanka by national and international standards to the public sector, private sector organizations, and the public.
The department provides relevant weather forecasting services and warnings of severe weather conditions (including cyclones, strong winds, lightning, and gusts) for international aviation and maritime activities, agriculture, energy, fisheries, shipping, insurance, and other areas of interest. Also providing meteorological and climatological data and data for a national framework and research activities, organizing educational, training programs and workshops in the fields related to the specified themes for school students, policymakers, and decision-makers interest groups, exhibits, and resources.
The Meteorological Department is headed by the Director General of Meteorology. The department consists of twenty-three regional offices scattered in the country including meteorological offices established at Katunayake, Mattala and Rathmalan Airports to provide meteorological services for international and domestic flights. 38 Automatic Weather Observing Stations and 135 Automatic Rain Gauge Stations are functioning under the direct management of the Department for data acquisition. In addition, 35 Agro-meteorological centers for obtaining Agro-meteorological data and around 450 rainfall centers for obtaining rainfall data throughout the island are maintained with the support of various institutions.
There are 34 scientists working as meteorologists and most of them are working as operational weather forecasters in the Department of Meteorology. They provide weather and climate information, forecasts, and bad weather warnings to the general public as well as various sectors in various temporal and spatial scales. Temporal scales span from nowcasting/very short-term (several hours ahead), short-term (day ahead), mid-term (week to month ahead), and long-term (years to decades ahead) term. Meteorologists are providing weather and climate forecasts for water, Irrigation, power, and energy sectors, for maximizing the usable component of the water and generated power.