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Heat Index likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre of the Department of Meteorology
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 28 March 2026, valid for 29March 2026.
Heat index, the temperature felt on the human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.
Effect of the heat index on human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.
Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.
The head of Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has resigned, falling on his sword after the men’s national team failed to qualify for a World Cup for a third consecutive time.
Gabriele Gravina revealed he would step down as the country’s top football official following a meeting held at the FIGC’s headquarters in Rome on Thursday.
His announcement came a day after Sport Minister Andrea Abodi called on him to resign.
Four-time World Cup winners Italy fell at the playoffs again on Tuesday, this time after a penalty shootout against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will miss this year’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The shock waves of the latest humiliation for one of the world’s most successful football nations forced Gravina, 72, to go back on his initial plans to wait until a FIGC board meeting next week to announce a decision on his future.
The FIGC said in a statement that a vote for a new president would be held on June 22.
Giovanni Malago, the former longtime head of the Italian National Olympic Committee who was president of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics organisation committee, is reportedly one of the names in the hat.
Before then, head coach Gennaro Gattuso is expected to also step down, while general manager Gianluigi Buffon, the former Italy goalkeeper, announced his resignation on Thursday.
Italy’s failure to reach the first-ever 48-team World Cup – which will feature the likes of Cape Verde and Curacao – led Abodi to release a statement saying: “It’s clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with changes at the top of the FIGC.”
[Aljazeera]
Iranian forces have said they struck down two fighter jets belonging to the United States military, one over the southwest part of the country and another around the Strait of Hormuz.
A spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said on Friday that air defences completely destroyed one F-15 jet. Later in the day, the Iranian military said it targeted an A-10 US aircraft that crashed into the Gulf.
The New York Times had cited unidentified officials as saying that the A10’s pilot was safe after the crash.
But the fate of at least one pilot from the downed F-15 crew is unknown. Several US media outlets reported that one crew member of the jet was located and rescued by US forces, but the other remains missing.
US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that the downing of the jet will not affect the prospect of talks with Tehran. “No, not at all. No, it’s war. We’re in war,” he said.
State media outlets in Iran showed photos of the wreckage of the F-15 jet and what appears to be an ejection seat with an attached parachute.
After the jet was downed, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf mocked Trump’s repeated claims of victory in the war.
“After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’” Ghalibaf wrote in a social media post.
There was no immediate comment on the incident from the Pentagon and US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in the Middle East and much of Asia.
[Aljazeera]
Nasa has shared the first high-resolution images of the Earth taken by the Artemis II crew as they head on their trip around the Moon.
The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, took the “spectacular” images, Nasa says, after the crew completed a final engine burn that set them on a trajectory towards our closest celestial neighbour.
The first image, called Hello, World, shows the vast expanse of blue that is the Atlantic Ocean, framed by a thin glow of the atmosphere as the Earth eclipses the Sun and green auroras at either pole.
The Earth appears to us as upside down, with the western Sahara and Iberian peninsula visible to the left and the eastern portion of South America to the right.
Nasa identified the bright planet to the bottom right as Venus.
The images were taken after the crew successfully completed a trans-lunar injection burn in the early hours of Friday.
The burn took the Orion spacecraft out of Earth orbit as the four astronauts aboard aim to travel the more than 200,000 miles to the Moon.
Artemis II is now on a looping path that will carry the crew around the far side of the Moon and back again. It is the first time since 1972 that humans have travelled outside of the Earth’s orbit.
The crew should pass around the far side of the Moon on 6 April and return to Earth on 10 April.
After the burn was completed, the crew were “glued to the windows” taking pictures, mission specialist Jeremy Hansen told mission control in Houston.
“We are getting a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth, lit by the Moon,” he said.
Wiseman later called back down to mission control in Houston to ask how to clean the windows, as the astronauts’ enthusiasm to see into space had left them dirty.
The commander had initially found it difficult to take pictures of our planet from the spacecraft, saying taking photos at such a distance made it hard to adjust exposure settings.
“It’s like walking out back at your house, trying to take a picture of the moon,” he told mission control. “That’s what it feels like right now.”
But that is no longer an issue.
Another view captured by Wiseman shows the Earth divided by night and day. That frontier between light and darkness is known as the terminator.
Later, Nasa published another image showing the Earth in near-complete darkness, with the electric lights of humankind twinkling in the nighttime.
It also produced a side-by-side comparison of 2026’s view of the Earth and a similar one taken by the Apollo 17 team in 1972 – the last time humans set foot on the Moon.
“We’ve come so far in the last 54 years, but one thing hasn’t changed: our home looks gorgeous from space!” it wrote.
[BBC]
World Cup 2026: Italy’s football chief resigns after qualifying failure
Iran says it downed two US jets as search for one pilot continues
Showers above75 mm are likely at some places in the Central, Sabaragamuwa, Uva, North-central and Eastern provinces after 1.00 p.m.
Artemis II crew take ‘spectacular’ image of Earth
White House to ask Congress for record-breaking $1.5 trillion defence budget
Members of the TPA meet with President Dissanayake
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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