Pata
02-12-2007, 07:01 AM
Date : 03 rd February 2007 ( Saturday )
Time : 17:12 Hrs ( Sri Lankan Time )
Location : Matara Town- Western Coast of Sri Lanka (Approx 160 km down south from Colombo)
Light drizzle started coming down suddenly with no prior signs what so ever. We just stopped close to shore to view the scenic beauty of the well known Paravi Doowa ( Pigeon Island ) and surroundings during our way back to Colombo, returning from Hambantota, southern city worst hit by Boxing day Tsunami in 2004. To our amazement a peculiar splash of sea spray with an eddy type motion mounting up to about 2m was seen without any movement on the horizontal plane, first noticed 10m away from the coast. Due to its peculiar motion & eye catching characteristics we thought that capturing the development on the video camera, might be of great value, without knowing the subsequent effects that stunned, once seriously damaged city ( Matara ) during Tsunami, for few minutes.
Thereafter, the oceanic eddy started moving parallel to the coast and suddenly gathered momentum, as it appeared, and changed its direction towards the land with the characteristics of small scale Tornado disturbing sand, other particles & objects on the way. Then the gravity of the development was apparent that uprooted the trees stood obstructing its way of propagation towards inland.
By this time the storm like agitation looked leaving the ground with a lift while moving towards the country and shattered number of asbestos roofing sheets on the roof of the bus stand in the town and went further inlands escaping from the camera lens. To our knowledge this is the first time that a similar development was captured in a video in Sri Lanka.
Tornados first time in Srilanka.wmv (http://sharedzilla.com/en/get?id=74174) - 671 Kb
Gihan Fonseka & Sajeewa Chandrasekera reporting from Sri Lanka.
Time : 17:12 Hrs ( Sri Lankan Time )
Location : Matara Town- Western Coast of Sri Lanka (Approx 160 km down south from Colombo)
Light drizzle started coming down suddenly with no prior signs what so ever. We just stopped close to shore to view the scenic beauty of the well known Paravi Doowa ( Pigeon Island ) and surroundings during our way back to Colombo, returning from Hambantota, southern city worst hit by Boxing day Tsunami in 2004. To our amazement a peculiar splash of sea spray with an eddy type motion mounting up to about 2m was seen without any movement on the horizontal plane, first noticed 10m away from the coast. Due to its peculiar motion & eye catching characteristics we thought that capturing the development on the video camera, might be of great value, without knowing the subsequent effects that stunned, once seriously damaged city ( Matara ) during Tsunami, for few minutes.
Thereafter, the oceanic eddy started moving parallel to the coast and suddenly gathered momentum, as it appeared, and changed its direction towards the land with the characteristics of small scale Tornado disturbing sand, other particles & objects on the way. Then the gravity of the development was apparent that uprooted the trees stood obstructing its way of propagation towards inland.
By this time the storm like agitation looked leaving the ground with a lift while moving towards the country and shattered number of asbestos roofing sheets on the roof of the bus stand in the town and went further inlands escaping from the camera lens. To our knowledge this is the first time that a similar development was captured in a video in Sri Lanka.
Tornados first time in Srilanka.wmv (http://sharedzilla.com/en/get?id=74174) - 671 Kb
Gihan Fonseka & Sajeewa Chandrasekera reporting from Sri Lanka.