Episode 2 Weather Watchers with Barra Best

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

A witticism attributed to writer Mark Twain.

And we do talk about the weather a lot, but there is a good reason.

The weather affects our lives every day,

from the clothes we wear to the games we play.

And while we can't do anything about the weather,

we can certainly do things with it.

My granny used to say it was a good drying day.

Before we had tumble dryers she put the washing out on the line

to allow the wind to do its thing.

Today, we harness the energy of wind to power our businesses

and our homes.

A good drying day, 21st-century-style.

The first wind farms appeared in Northern Ireland in the 1990s,

and, since then, they have become a familiar sight,

dotted around the countryside.

This is Gruig Wind Farm in County Antrim,

and this ten-turbine farm provides enough energy to power

over 14,000 homes.

In one year, a single wind turbine can generate

enough electricity to make 230 million cups of tea.

A good excuse, if one was needed, to put the kettle on.

There is not another human being around, but with the turbines,

a gentle wind and the warm sun for company, I am content.

Strangford Lough in County Down.

It's beautiful in all seasons, especially in autumn,

when tens of thousands of brent geese take advantage of tailwinds

to carry them from their summer breeding grounds in Canada

to their winter retreat in Ireland.

I have come to Castle Espie to meet up with John McCullough

and to see these remarkable birds for myself.

You have a lot of birds here, but I suppose

the big attraction at this time of year is the brent geese.

Very, very much so. I mean, these birds here that we see,

they are in the zoo side of things at Castle Espie,

but when you step beyond the gate here, you're looking at the wild.

You are right out there, there is thousands

and thousands of birds that have migrated a long journey to be here,

so that is really what draws the crowds at this time of the year.

How many are we talking?

A couple of weeks ago, we did a count of 6,000 plus

just on the north end of Strangford Lough.

But we reckon now you could be talking about

20,000 birds right across.

And they have flown quite a distance from

the Canadian Arctic all the way here.

They have flown right the way down,

over the southern tip of Greenland,

they stop off in Iceland,

because they need it as a staging ground, they need to feed

up there, and then they make their way down into Strangford Lough.

And I suppose they are really coming here for a vacation

-away from the cold.

-Of course they are.

-This is their Caribbean.

Yeah, it is. Cos you imagine...

Well, you'll know, that it is getting dark up there,

getting cold up there, they are getting hungry up there,

so the first thing they want to do is get here,

relax and fill their stomachs.

That's it, that's all they are doing.

This is a lovely little sheltered bay here.

It has got plenty of eelgrass - this sort of green stuff

that you can see, Barra - this is what they are here to eat.

So this bay holds quite a few brent geese -

when the tide is coming in, you will get them flying over this

pier here and they will drop in here.

It's a massive number of the birds that come here.

Yeah, completely significant,

brent geese put Strangford Lough on the map.

This is why this area is so protected,

because you're really talking about nearly

the entire world's population of this bird that comes here.

It is extremely significant.

They might be small, but these birds have made

an incredible 2,500-mile journey to reach our shores.

They are really relying on a strong north-westerly wind to get here.

Oh, very much so.

If the wind is blowing in the wrong direction on migration,

they will not move. No point.

They have only so much energy,

so what they need is north-westerlies.

If you can imagine, they are in the Arctic,

they need to be pushed from behind, they are not going to

fly into any southerlies coming up, cos, why?

You'll expend so much energy.

How can the weather affect the numbers?

Well, there is many different ways the weather can affect them.

If they have used up loads of energy on migration by battling

against weather fronts, by the time they get there - breeding?

They are just too tired, basically.

When they are in the Arctic,

if they haven't had a proper thaw up there, you have still got

ice down there, you're not going to try and build a nest.

Even though it's a wee hollow in the ground,

you don't want to be sitting on eggs in ice.

So it can affect them, even in the breeding.

Sometimes the winds coming in from the northwest have been

so good that the birds have managed to bypass Greenland

and Iceland and come straight here.

Yeah, that is fairly remarkable, it does occasionally happen,

and it generally takes us by surprise.

Cos the scientists are waiting here,

and we kind of know when to expect them, suddenly when they all arrive

in mass numbers early, we are just going,

"How on earth did that happen?"

And that is how it happens.

The weather conditions are perfect, strong north-westerlies,

constant north-westerlies, that push them right over Greenland

and get them here, and that means the birds are in perfect condition.

They're going to take advantage of that.

Of course they are, they would be daft not to.

All the natural world takes those conditions into consideration.

How long will they stay here once they arrive?

Well, they arrive in the autumn and will stay right through

the winter, and then when we start hitting around about April, May -

what we would consider, hopefully, to be springtime here -

they are going to be turning round and heading

back up towards the Arctic.

They need a good north-westerly wind to get here, so I suppose

they are looking for a good south-easterly wind to blow back.

Exactly. It is, again, weather-dependent, wind-dependent.

Why expend energy on the return journey?

It is actually even, potentially, more hazardous on the return,

because you have probably got the female bird,

they have bred, the male has got to look after her,

so they want everything to be perfect on the way back.

And we are more likely to get north-westerly winds

-than we are the other way around.

-Unfortunately.

So it is good for them in the autumn. In the spring,

it can be a wee bit more of a sort of big, big journey for them.

That's them just out there?

Yeah, just in a big raft there. Now that the tide is fully in,

the birds can't reach the eelgrass below them, so they'll actually just

go and float out to sea and generally just have a snooze.

-They just chill on the water...

-That's it.

-..until they can feed again.

-All it is is sleeping and feeding.

Five hours of doing nothing, floating on the water.

-Sounds perfect, doesn't it?

-Sounds great, doesn't it?

There is plenty of truth in the saying that

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and I am going to

attempt to get up close, nose to beak, with the resident geese.

I think we have got somebody a little bit hungry.

But an absolutely magnificent bird.

It's weird, you kind of expect them to bite your hand.

'No biting the hand that feeds you, now.'

HE LAUGHS

No? No more? All done?

As evening falls over Strangford Lough, the brent geese feed

and settle down for the night in their winter home.

I am staying in this rich and fertile land.

County Down has its own fields of gold.

I'll never underestimate the importance of why people

get in touch to find out what our weather is going to do.

Should they be trying to organise a barbecue

or paint the garden fence?

But for some, their livelihoods depend on it.

So I have come here to find out how important an accurate forecast is.

This is Alan Chambers, and his farm is on the Lecale Peninsula.

We are surrounded on three sides by water, so we are quite mild.

We don't get heavy frosts, but probably the most important thing

is that we have the lowest annual rainfall in Northern Ireland.

And that is between 28 and 30 inches. Why is that?

Well, we are on the sheltered side of the Mourne Mountains,

so the Atlantic fronts that bring the weather,

the showers and the rain in, tend to deposit

most of the rain on the far side of the mountains from here.

It is an arable area, and Allan can grow crops that

most of Northern Ireland's farmers find difficult to do.

We are growing three crops - wheat, barley and forage maize.

All those crops need to be drilled and sown in dry conditions,

when the ground is suitable. And when it comes to looking

after them, we have to have low wind for doing spraying,

good ground conditions to get machines on the field.

Today, we are harvesting the wheat.

We have been watching the weather carefully,

because we want to get the machines in when the grain is at its driest.

And quite a spell of good weather is needed to get the wheat

ready for harvest.

Sunshine ripens the grain.

So four or five weeks ago, this was quite wet, quite mushy.

Today, because of the sun and the wind, this has dried out,

and I have got a little sample of grain here which will...

CRUNCH

..crunch between my teeth.

That means, basically, it is about ready to harvest.

What has got me there? Sunshine and wind.

I have been an arable farmer now for 50 years.

Basically, my life has been ruled by the weather.

I need to plan ahead,

I need to know when I'm going to get these windows that will

open for me to get big machines into the fields,

or get my crops sprayed, or get my fertiliser on.

So I watch the weather forecast every day,

sometimes four or five times a day, not only to see

what it is going to do the next day,

but, say, in four or five days' time.

Allan is going to be under a bit of pressure to get

the harvest in before the weather breaks.

Two days ago, it looked like we were going to get four dry days.

Yesterday, there seemed to be a change coming about,

and this morning, we are told that there

could be very heavy rain by Friday afternoon.

We will try to get this grain harvested

and the straw baled up and looked after before the weather breaks.

That might mean working until 11, 12 o'clock tonight,

one o'clock in the morning.

If the breeze keeps up and there is no dew, we can work away.

Everything going well, a couple of days, three days,

we will have the grain safely in store

and my year's work will have reached its fulfilment.

I am glad the weather was kind to Allan, and all farmers.

Another worry over for another year.

I like my weather like I like my tea - not too hot, not too cold -

and the Gulf Stream does that for me, it regulates the temperature.

How does it do it?

Well, it is a strong, swift, warm Atlantic current

that goes along the east coast of the United States

and makes Ireland warmer than it would be otherwise.

A small tendril of the Gulf Stream called the North Atlantic Drift

comes towards Ireland, and this warms the surrounding waters.

Think of it like our own hot water bottle.

Also thanks to the Gulf Stream, the north coast of Ireland

picks up consistent amounts of Atlantic swell.

People say to me,

"Barra, I remember summer last year - it was on a Tuesday!"

We have some of the best beaches in Europe, but it is

very rare that someone feels brave or optimistic enough

to go into the sea.

But one man who is not afraid to look into the eye of the storm

is big-wave surfer Al Mennie.

Al has surfed all over the world in search of that perfect wave.

AL LAUGHS

And weather is the hinge on which surfing depends.

A surfing globetrotter Al may be,

but he caught his first wave closer to home.

I got into surfing through being on the beach at Castlerock

at the age of nine.

My brother and I surfed, my mum and dad. We have always had

boats in the family, so it seemed to be normal

to be in the sea, you know?

And when lots of people think of surfing,

they picture Australia,

they picture California, but we have people coming from all over

the world to surf here on the north coast and along the west coast.

Yeah, we have excellent waves, we just... It's colder here, obviously.

And it is wild in the winter, but we do have very good waves,

especially on the north coast.

Our prevailing wind direction is southwest,

so that is the best wind for us to have,

because it blows offshore and cleans up the surface of the waves.

And when I am thinking about the weather,

I am thinking about

when the next batch of rain is going to come in from the Atlantic,

but when you're thinking about surfing,

you're looking at systems around the globe, almost.

Yeah, well, in order for us to get surf here on the north coast,

we need weather to happen in other parts of the world

to send those waves to us.

There's a misconception where people think, "Oh, it's really

"windy by the sea, there'll be good waves for surfing."

That's not how it is, that's not the kind of waves we look for.

In particular, I look for these storms,

these deep depressions starting to form down in the Atlantic,

over towards the Caribbean, and, believe it or not,

if we see hurricanes down there, we're sitting here going,

"There's going to be waves in seven to ten days" sort of thing.

Those storms, when they hit the Caribbean, generate huge waves.

What height are we talking here?

At sea, in the middle of these storms,

you're talking 50, 60-foot waves sometimes.

When they come to the coast, they're different, they can be bigger,

they can be smaller, it depends how

that reacts as it moves through the sea.

'Al is taking me around the coast now to check out

'a few of his favourite surfing spots.'

What is the highest wave you've surfed off the coast of Ireland?

Erm...

-probably over 60 feet.

-Impressive.

Was that during a storm of some sort?

Yeah, that was actually back in 2008, at the time it

was during the biggest recorded swell in the Atlantic.

All this technology, we can see all the different swells

and the wind forecast and everything coming together,

and they can predict where the waves are coming to,

and then we've got wave buoys in locations,

and a wave buoy is basically a measuring device on the ocean,

and it's moving with the swell and with the wind

and recording all this data. When I log in to the internet,

I see these waves buoys and it's telling me it's 25-foot swell

and there is a wave period of 15 seconds, I know what is coming.

That is very, very valuable information.

And sometimes, Al finds big waves in unexpected locations.

MUSIC: Riptide by Vance Joy

# Running down to the riptide

# Taken away to the dark side

# I wanna be your left-hand man... #

And sometimes it's Al who provides the photo opportunity.

We are at the Giant's Causeway,

one of our most popular tourist destinations to see

all of the rocks, but you like to come here to surf.

How dangerous is it?

This is one of the most dangerous places you can go surfing -

I would not advise it to anyone, it is dangerous here.

And it is because of all the rocks in particular, and it just gets

battered here, it is an extremely rough, wild part of the coast.

And these are the charts that you use to figure out where to go.

This is an Admiralty chart.

It shows the depth of the ocean and various currents.

-If you look on here, this is where we are just at the minute.

-Uh-huh.

I look at the depth of the sea

and then look what direction is the swell and various things like that.

So if you imagine, I am sitting out here normally,

just where we are,

I am looking for a big storm way up in the North Atlantic.

Way, way up there, so the winds are kept away,

it's all crazy chaos out there.

It pushes these swells in towards the coast like that,

and then locally, here we have got

the local weather system which is giving us light offshore winds.

That is ideal to push off against the swell, to clean it all up.

Smoothing out the waves.

And here we have got these massive cliffs,

they kill the winds. So if it is

a really strong windy day, for example -

say it is 25mph wind - that big cliff

will knock the wind out of it, so it could be down to ten.

So in here could be nice and smooth and clean,

despite out here being very rough.

Al's enthusiasm is infectious, and I certainly wasn't going

to let one of the best surfers in the world go without a lesson.

MUSIC: I Get Knocked Down by Joey Ramone

# I got knocked down But I'll get up

# I got knocked down But I'll get up... #

BARRA SHOUTS

OK, it isn't a 60-foot wave, but it is still a huge achievement for me.

# I got-got knocked down But I'll get up. #

BARRA WHOOPS

Let's get the latest on the weather forecast now.

While Al's looking at the bigger picture

and what the weather is doing out in the Atlantic...

most of us want to find out what the weather

is doing closer to home.

People no longer want just the forecast,

they want a "nowcast" - an immediate real-time report on the weather.

And you already help us do that by posting

photographs on Twitter, Facebook and on the BBC Weather Watchers website.

It looks like a great day in the Orchard County of Armagh.

Well named.

Today, more than 4,000 acres of Armagh is dedicated to

apple-growing, and I am at one of the orchards today to meet up

with Philip Troughton.

Philip, looking around, it seems summer has been kind to you.

Is this a normal crop?

This is a late-flowering variety,

and it has actually cropped reasonably well.

In fact, very well.

That is really two reasons why

we can grow apples in County Armagh,

why we DO grow apples in County Armagh.

One is tradition - there is

a tradition of apple growing in the area. The others is climate.

Because of the influence of Lough Neagh, there is

a small area between the rivers Blackwater

and Bann where we get slightly less early spring frosts.

And early spring frosts is what totally determines how many

apples or what crop we grow.

So it really is that weather-dependent for you?

It is totally weather-dependent.

What way does your season work, then?

Well, the apples come into flower in May.

This year we had a bit of early spring frost, which did

a certain amount of damage and lessened the crop,

I would say, maybe by 50%.

But you have come at a particularly nice time of the year.

These apples are very close to harvest.

You can see the crops there are.

Could you do this anywhere else in Northern Ireland?

There is no apples grown anywhere further north than

the southern shore of the lough.

In the UK, there are no apples grown

north of Birmingham.

We are at a level with Stranraer

in Scotland, so we are probably

200 miles north of where apples are grown in the UK.

So, literally, its own little microclimate?

It is a very little microclimate

which just happens to suit this area.

You have got quite a lot of land here

and these aren't the only types of apple you grow.

In total, we have about 80 acres of orchard on the farm.

We started off as a Bramley apple grower,

and the variety needs other apples mixed in with it to produce a crop.

So that allowed us to grow lots and lots of eating apples,

and also we planted cider apples.

How does the weather influence the taste of your apples?

It's like everything, Barra, everything likes sunny weather -

people, animals, apples, crops.

The sunshine will increase the sugar levels in the apples,

and the increased sugar levels allow us to make cider.

It is the sugars in the apples that make the alcohol.

So these eating apples will be pressed into juice,

and that juice can either be pure apple juice,

or it can be blended off and made into cider.

That process takes us about six months. There is other by-products.

Whenever we make the cider,

we can change that into apple cider vinegar.

Whenever these apples are pressed,

the by-product of that is basically dry apple,

and that we can send for cattle feed.

It actually increases milk production?

In a dairy herd, apples will increase milk production.

It would be a bit like the spring flush of grass.

'If an apple a day does actually keep the doctor away,

'then I have come to the right place.'

Weather affects everything we do, in work and play.

Clouds, clear skies, wind, rain and sunshine -

all have their part to play.

What we really need now is a perfect day.

Put your elbows in, watch your toes.

-This is why you have no hair, it is burned off.

-Occupational hazard.

Hands off one second, hands off.

And we're off. Fantastic.

Just going to gently float down here,

see what is happening with the winds.

-It is remarkably smooth, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is.

-Wow.

It is just so peaceful up here, you can barely hear a sound.

BURNER BLASTS

In fact, the only sound is from the flame-thrower

that's keeping us up in the air.

This is a lovely smooth ride,

but you can't help feel a little helpless.

Yeah, well, to a certain extent, we are.

The wind is taking us a direction, but I am controlling the height,

and that is the important thing, so we are still off the ground.

# Somewhere over the rainbow

# Way up high

# And the dreams that you dream of

# Once in a lullaby... #

It is not often we get perfect weather like this.

What do you look for?

Weather conditions in Northern Ireland maybe aren't

the most suitable, but we need

steady, still conditions like tonight.

Winds - eight knots maximum, five is ideal

- like we're having here tonight - and no rain.

What happens when we get rain?

BURNER BLASTS

Well, if we get rain,

we're sitting down in the restaurant

-wishing we were ballooning.

-Why?

No, unfortunately, if you imagine, rain gets under

the envelope, it gets wet, it gets heavier, it gets colder,

it makes it harder to fly,

and the material itself would get ruined in the wet conditions.

On average, how many days do you get to do this in Ireland?

This year we have been quite lucky, having to do a day job

at the same time, but this year we have got about 15 flights in.

That is from April through to, well,

I imagine this could be the last flight of the year for us,

in October, because the weather starts to change now.

The daylight is starting to disappear

and therefore it is not as easy to get out.

So our typical unpredictable Irish weather is not great for you -

why would you want to balloon here?

They always say if you learn to balloon in Northern Ireland,

you will be able to fly anywhere.

If you look down around you, the fields are small,

there are a lot of electric wires, a lot of animals about,

so it is fun, it's a good activity

because there is a wee bit of thinking needed rather than

having 40-acre fields that anyone could put the balloon into.

# So let's spend the afternoon in a cold hot-air balloon

# Leave your jacket behind, lean out and touch the tree tops... #

So now we are drifting down, but you are controlling this.

Yes, I am controlling the descent,

and we are actually going to go over the forest here.

What you will find, we have picked up in speed

because it is a bit cooler over the forest.

One thing about the weather and the temperature is,

the sun warms up the ground at different rates, so therefore

a ploughed field would be different

to a grass field, to an actual forest.

When you are planning a balloon flight in the morning,

what conditions are you looking for?

A lovely frosty morning is perfect, where you have got still air

and coldness, because if you imagine,

what we are trying to do is heat up the air in the envelope,

so the colder the air is around it,

the less temperature we have to add to the envelope to make this go up.

The unpredictable nature of Irish weather

makes ballooning very difficult.

We have touched lucky today, the weather is perfect.

# I see skies of blue

# And clouds of white

# The bright blessed day

# The dark sacred night... #

Tonight is great.

If you look at any of the trees, even the wind turbines,

very little movement on them.

But there is enough movement here to actually move us across the air.

Your ideal flight time, then, is around dawn and dusk.

Yeah, if you're in there ready to take off in the field

just as day breaks in the mornings, that's perfect timing,

and then in the evenings, you have to be down by sunset.

So you are talking the hour, hour-and-a-half before sunset.

It's because the thermals during the day can cause you problems.

Yeah, the thermals are unpredictability to a balloon,

because it will move from one thermal to the next thermal,

and that is not good because you're

losing full control of the balloon.

At the moment, we have control,

because we're going with the wind in the one direction.

# Yes, I think to myself... #

From this height, I can appreciate Mother Nature

in all her splendour.

# ..what a wonderful world

# Oh, yeah. #

Anywhere in our part of the world can make your senses dance or sing

if the weather's right.

Take a walk in the hazy sunshine, but enjoy it,

because the clouds floating above might not have a silver lining.

Until next time, bye-bye.