Is Yaka Wewa flooding now?

As of Tue, 27 Oct, 12:01 am (Sri Lanka time), the Ma Oya at Yaka Wewa was 2.9 ft, below the 13.1 ft alert level, and steady.

Will the Ma Oya at Yaka Wewa rise in the next hour?

In the next hour the Ma Oya at Yaka Wewa should stay about the same. This is a forecast from the recent trend, the gauges upstream and rain, not an official warning.

What is the flood level at Yaka Wewa?

The official marks for this gauge are alert 13.1 ft, minor flood 16.4 ft, major flood 19.7 ft. Alert means the river has reached the alert mark: move valuables up and charge your phone. Minor flood means water is spilling over low ground, and major flood means move to safety.

Where does this come from and how often does it update?

River readings come from the Department of Irrigation's gauges, roughly once an hour, and this page checks for new ones every minute. This site is independent and not an official warning service: follow the Disaster Management Centre and call 117 in an emergency.

Yaka Wewa Ma Oya water level today (live)

Official warning:

Heavy rain above 100 mm is possible in parts of the Northern, Western, Sabaragamuwa, North-western, Central and Southern provinces and Anuradhapura district; people in these areas are advised to be prepared.

Department of Meteorology

Reading at 12:01 am · 55 min ago

Normal

2.9 ft

Next hour

Steady

Next 24 hours

No estimate yet

The river is expected to remain steady at about 2.9 ft in an hour.

Details

Steady: about 2.9 ft in an hour.

Published as 0.88 m (alert 4.0 m, minor flood 5.0 m, major flood 6.0 m)

In	Level	80% range	At
1h	2.9 ft	2.9 to 2.9	1:01 am

Local trend

0.00 ft/h

Upstream avg

n/a (top)

Rain that fell: 0.0 mm in the last 3 hours, 34 mm in the last 24 hours at this gauge (moderate rain)
Rain forecast: 1.5 mm in the next 24 hours over the catchment (light rain). Forecast model estimate.

Satellite estimate of rain over the catchment: 4.3 mm in the last 6 hours, 59.0 mm in the last 24 hours (to 12:30 am). It can differ from the gauges. GSMaP data by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

· Trend only: a rain model was fitted and tested on 8 days but was no more accurate than "level stays put" at any horizon (best: 12 h, 0.20 vs 0.19 error).
· Forecast model estimate of catchment rain (Open-Meteo, area average over 8 grid cells above this gauge): 13.8 mm modelled for the last 6 hours, 50 mm modelled for the last 24 hours, 2 mm forecast for the next 24 hours. The model's past hours often read lower than the gauges, so they are not what fell; this note is for context.
· Topmost gauge on its river: no gauge upstream, so only its own trend (plus catchment rain) is available.

How this is worked out
· 'Level stays the same' with a range taken from how much this gauge has really changed in an hour. In a backtest no model beat 'no change' here (one hour ahead only). This is the topmost gauge on its river, so there is no upstream gauge; the catchment rain above is the only upstream signal.

Is this right?

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Water level

This gauge’s forecasts: the next hour is typically off by about 0.1 ft (last 30 days, 28 checks).

River map

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When does Yaka Wewa flood?

Flood warnings come mostly in December.

It’s October: usually a quieter month here, though heavy rain can still bring floods.

Recent floods

26 Jul 2026Major flood
10 Apr 2026Major flood
6 Dec 2025Major flood

Every day since 2022, year by year

Other stations

Flood help & emergency numbers

Common questions

Is Yaka Wewa flooding now?: As of Tue, 27 Oct, 12:01 am (Sri Lanka time), the Ma Oya at Yaka Wewa was 2.9 ft, below the 13.1 ft alert level, and steady.
Will the Ma Oya at Yaka Wewa rise in the next hour?: In the next hour the Ma Oya at Yaka Wewa should stay about the same. This is a forecast from the recent trend, the gauges upstream and rain, not an official warning.
What is the flood level at Yaka Wewa?: The official marks for this gauge are alert 13.1 ft, minor flood 16.4 ft, major flood 19.7 ft. Alert means the river has reached the alert mark: move valuables up and charge your phone. Minor flood means water is spilling over low ground, and major flood means move to safety.
Where does this come from and how often does it update?: River readings come from the Department of Irrigation's gauges, roughly once an hour, and this page checks for new ones every minute. This site is independent and not an official warning service: follow the Disaster Management Centre and call 117 in an emergency.