Episode 3 The Great British Weather

27 million of us are going on holiday this summer, staycation or

vacation, we will tell you where to find the sun. Tonight on The Great

Hello, and welcome to The Great British Weather, live from

Grennwich Park in London. For hundreds of years astronomers at

the Royal Observatory behind me have been peering up the heavens.

So will we as The Great British Weather goes in search of the sun

and our elusive summer. The sun is out and so are the

weather fans in London. They can't wait to get involved with the

programme. We want you at home to do exactly the same, send in photos

and also solve a few queries. For example, your favourite summer song.

Here are a few. We're Walking On Sunshine. Bring Me Sunshine. We're

Having a Heatwave. Well done for rembering those, join in, e-mail us

on the website. We will play out with a favourite summer song at the

end of the programme. Coming up: are you about to book your summer

holiday, hold off, John Kettley is here to tell you where to find the

best weather home and away this summer.

Strictly's Craig Revel Horwood goes through the history of tanning.

so long ago tan was not so sought after.

As the temperature rise, the supermarkets are watching you, they

know what you want to buy before you do. But find out how tonight.

Rising from the Ashes, Freddie Flintoff is here live to get to the

bottom of a weather cricketing conundrum.

At the end of the show I will attempt to recreate one of

weather's deadliest phenomenon, brought to us curtesy of the yellow

thing up there, the sun. It is hot and wild, and never been seen live

on television, I'm talking about a fire tornado. Gang, can I do it?

NO! They saw the rehearsals, never behind, Carol Kirkwood, tell me,

please, what is a fire tornado. Spookily it is a tornado with fire

inside it. The name gives it away a touch. You tend to find t they are

rare, you tend to find it where it is really dry, where there are

wildfires, we have the vortex the tornado coming across it. It scoops

up the fire inside it and rotates all the way inside it too. Have you

seen many in the UK? No, they are very rare. Dedefinitely will have

one by the end of the show. Also the thing we really want to do is

introduce our weather map. It has travelled well from the Lake

District, it survived that rainy weather. Even our landmarks are

still on it. Don't forget, obviously, we want you to tell us

what the weather is like, exactly where you are. The Met Office said

this is unbelievable, they have never seen a better way of

monitoring the weather, second by second in the UK. That is

absolutely right, and last week we were just missing a couple of place,

the Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Skye, do send in pictures from

there, Dumfries, Lincoln and Swansea. What's wrong with you

Swansea, get out there, we want to see photographs there. When you are

sitting there at home, you can take part, get up off the sofa, take a

photograph and get in touch. How do they do that? You get in touch with

us by sending your pictures to the website.

Include your name, postcode and also where you took the photo.

Tonight we don't want to see a centimeter of land, do get snapping.

I also want to say we have got a weather front coming in tonight to

Northern Ireland, affecting parts of western Scotland, eventually too.

At the moment it might be dry for example, where you are, say in

Belfast, but as the weather front comes through, there will be rain

and also a drop in temperature, we want to see your before and after

pictures. Please send them to us. Our summer may be a bit of a damp

squib so far this year, but tonight we are here to bring a little

sunshine into our life. Dig, if you will, a long hot sizzling summer.

The heat is still on in parts of Britain, with temperatures soaring

to 32 degrees. In central London it is officially a scourger. The great

British summer bathes us in 362 more hours of glorious sunshine

throughout June, July and August, than in the chilly winter months.

The jempures started high at 20 degrees at 6.200. Hottest of all is

the south coast, where Eastbourne holds the record for the UK's

sunnyist summer month. It still battles annually with Bognor Regis

of sunnyist spot in the UK. No matter where we live, us Brits

always cry out for more. We don't always have a soggy summer,

sometimes the sun arrives in the British sky and stays here for week,

it refuses to budge as Britain bakes. That means only one thing,

we are having a hot, hot heatwave. To get the heatwave we say we crave,

the Met Office definition demands at least two consecutive days of

high temperatures. For London this would mean 32 degrees Celsius or

above, or for northern cities like Newcastle, 28 degrees or above.

Britain's in the grip of one of the longest heatwaves for years.

last severe heatwave was in 200. For once, the brollies are being

used as par sols. It featured the UK's highest recorded temperature.

A health warning is in place in the Midlands and the south-east. On the

10th of August it reached a record- breaking 38.5 in fafrpb sham in

Kent. This long swaift of dry land is why there are fears of a drought.

While it was the hottest, 27 years previously the nation was gripped

with a heatwave, more sustained and far more serious. Britain had

experienced its driest 18 months on record. Reservoirs were empty, and

the ground was parched. On the 26th of June, a temperature of 35

degrees Celsius was recorded in the UK for the first time in the

20tsenttree. - 20th century, Roy Hattersley and his cabinet

colleagues were starting to get concerned. We were getting to the

point where we realised there was problems, we realise add week of

heavy rain wouldn't solve it. By the time of the summer recess in

parliament we were very worried indeed. Throughout July

temperatures at night never dipped below 20 Celsius.

Forest fires erupted across the UK. How many hours of sleep on average

in 24 have you got? 13 in one week. There wasn't enough water to put

them out. Thousands of gallons of sewage have been used on one fire

to help conserve dwindling water supplies. A massive area of high

pressure sat over most of the UK for another three weeks. The

Government had to act. On the 5th August 1976, they passed the

drought act. The protestors weren't impressed, they called for the

resignation of water officials. They even appointed a special

minister to handle the crisis, Dennis how we will. - Powell.

took to the job, how shall I put it, like a duck to water. I loved the

idea of going around the country telling people they have to stop

wasting water. He encouraged us to share bath, put a brick in our

toilet cistern, and cut supplies to thousands of homes. Basically the

pressure will be reduced so the water will reach the standpipe, but

not the individual houses. strict emergency measures were in

place for three long week, until one of the most complained about

aspects of our great British weather actually came to our rescue.

During the August bank holiday, it rained. Dennis took credit for the

rain, he spent days being photographed under an umbrella

looking up at the clouds. downpour continued for ten days

straight. Suddenly he was the rain maker. Some how he became a hero,

and for a moment it seemed the Government itself, rather than

nature had solved the problem. The heatwave of 1976 destroyed

thousands of acres of forest. It ruined �500 million worth of crops,

and sent food prices soaring. So the next time you are longing for a

hot summer, be careful what you wish for.

So Carol, that is how heat has affected us historically, but heat

at the moment is causing all sorts of problems across North America.

In Canada as well. There has been tremendous temperatures, in

Washington, for example, by day, the temperature got up to 40 sell

yu, but by night, - Celsius, but by night 29 Celsius, and high humidity,

so uncomfortable. That is a crucial factor? Yes t your body doesn't

work as effectively cooling down as it would in normal circumstances

with those kind of levels. 29 at night, you will never sleep through

that? It affected probably about 132 million in America at its peak,

thrches an excessive heat warn d there was an excessive heat warning

at the time, so they tell you not to do things, if you can stay in

with air conditioning, do, don't do anything strenuous, it could lead

to heat stroke. That is when you want a pool to throw yourself into

it? In a public pool in Philadelphia there were shifts. To

cool down you would go in for 30 minutes and then somebody else

would go in. But it felt, apparently, a chap in New York said

being in those kind of conditions, with the high humidity and high

temperatures was very much like being in a sauna.

Let's hope we don't get that. Over to Chris who has found

something very important to point out on the London skyline.

Take a look at that, that is the capital city of England, London,

Canary Wharf and the Millennium Dome. If you go inbetween there,

you will probably make out the Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Park

in Stratford. A year from today, that will have a giant torch being

lit for the opening ceremony. Just behind me here, at Grennwich Park,

this is where they will have the equestrian events. We are hoping

for some really lovely weather. You know what they say about Britain,

three lovely day, followed by a thunderstorm. That is especially

true if you think out there to the south-east, as soon as the

temperature rise, the south-east becomes the UK's thunder factory.

Now, we all love it when the sun eventually comes out on a lovely

British summer's day, but did you know that the sun's heat is the

vital ingredient for one of the most powerful, beautiful and down

right awesome displays of weather in nature. I'm talking about

thunderstorms. I'm going to find out exactly how

they work. With a temperature of 30,000

degrees, lightning is six-sometimes hotter than the surface of the sun.

The air around is rapidly heated until it explodes, creating a

shockwave, which we know as thunder. There are three main types of

lightning that strike the UK each year, each equally spectacular but

with different levels of danger. The most common type of lightning

is intercloud, it happens within the cloud. It is flash of light

followed by a few flickers, it is also known as sheet lightning. It

is awesome. There is intercloud lightning, happening between two

different clouds, one positive type of one cloud and one negative of

another, the lightning flies across. I'm perfectly safe here, but up

there in a plane? Now the most dangerous lightning of them all is

from cloud to ground. The negative charge of the cloud meets the

positive charge of the earth, creating a bolt. It is potentially

lethal. Yes, on average, 10-20 people are struck by lightning in

the UK each year. Whilst it might be a dazzling display to watch, it

is best to keep out of its way. In the UK, do you noi the chances

of being - know the chances of being hit by lightning is one in

1.4 million. What are the chances of three members of the same family

being struck at three different times, impossible, I hear you say.

But meet the unluckiest family in the world. Two Mr Langhams, Tom and

John, you have all been hit by lightning, when did it happen to

you? About a month ago at school. I was coming out of work, put up my

umbrella, looked around, I got smacked by a bolt of lightning. I

had witnessed and I'm not making it up. It happened to your grandma?

She was standing under a tree, a bolt of lightning hit the tree and

split it in half, and knocked her to the ground. Gasps here, what

happened for you? I took my son to a five-a-side football competition,

it came over dark, I put the umbrella up, thunder, lightning,

went down my arm and knocked it out of my hand. We see it in cartoon,

smoke comes out your ears and your hair goes curly, what is it like?

At first it doesn't hurt, after about 30 seconds your muscles start

contracting, and your body all over hurts and it is like a good workout

in the gym. Was it like that for you? Tingling down my arm. Thank

goodness you both survived that, and you are here. Please be careful.

I have a feeling, Carol, if it goes cloudy and a bit stormy, I'm making

a run, these are the last people you want standing next to you?

think you are right. If you are unlucky enough to be caught and

there is lightning around, there are lots of things to keep safe,

get inside into a sturdy building. Don't stand next to a tree, you

don't want to be the tallest thing on the horizon, get away from metal,

bicycles, glofl club, umbrella, and crouch down on your hunkers, with

your hands on your knee, and your head between your knee, you don't

want much contact with the ground if you can help it. We have heard

the saying raining cats and dog, but there was a case of raining

fish in London, 11 miles away from where we are now. It is no secret

that the great British weather can be a bit unpredictable. If I were

to forecast it was going to rain fish, you would probably think I

was mad. But in the last 100 years, there have been a staggering 600

reports of fish falling from the sky in Britain. From the beaches of

Great Yarmouth, to the valleys of mid-Wales. If you thought that was

weird, in 1998, here in Shirley in Croydon, something very bizarre

happened, it is believed to have rained frogs.

Have you ever seen it rain frogs here? No. Do you think it is a bit

weird? Yeah. Did you know it has rained frogs here? Frogs? Frogs

falling from the sky? No you are lying. We had floods one time, a

river running down here. Any frogs in it? I didn't see any. Are you

saying I look like a frog, ribbet! Whoever reported the incident to

the Met Office asked to remain anonymous, no-one wants to sound

crazy. But it might not be that far fetched. I have been told there is

real evidence to suggest that something fishy did happen just 15

miles away in East London. It all look place on a stormy night

in May, 1984. What the residents of Central Park road in East Ham found

the next morning made them question if they had actually lived through

a miracle. Following a heavy downpour, a local resident reported

that he had proof that fish had fallen from the sky. The today

thing about the fish falls and falls of frogs and things like that,

is they drop in a confined space. In this case they were in a man's

back garden. The strange Esthery is they teleported, appeared at a

point in the sky and then dropped. There is no proof of that. We have

fish falling in a small area, the skiz of a back garden, surely -

size of a back garden, surely somebody could come and chuck fish

over the fence? This was called the fishmonger theory. That somebody

with a surplus of stock got rid of them. They are not edible, I don't

think a fishmonger got rid of his stock. When I came along to see the

man, there was a builder working on his house, it was a few days later.

The builder very kindly went up the ladder and on to the roof, there

were the fishes in the gutter. if they were found in the gutters,

surely the fish could only have come from above? Bob took samples

to London's Natural History Museum. It was now up to fish curator,

Oliver Crimmon to solve the mystery. These are the original fish from

1984 preserved? They are. They are actually quite, what I would

consider, as a large fish falling from the sky, it is not a tiny

little thing? No. What is interesting is you have two species,

smelt and flounder, and both of these species are common in the

River Thames. The Thames is just three miles from where the fish

allegedly fell. So Oliver came up with a theory. It involved a

tornado-type wind that occurs over water. Known as a waterspout. High

winds over a lake, river, or the sea, can form a vortex. Reaching up

to 200 miles an hour, they have the strength to suck up objects from a

metre below the surface of the water. These objects then stay up

in the sky, as the vortex dissipates it starts raining and

what goes up must come down. I think it is amazing, I'm looking at

a fish here, that was deep inside a cloud somewhere up there,

spiralling around, and it fell to the ground over 20-odd years ago,

and here it is. Very bizarre. So, the next time someone says it

has been raining cats and dog, you never know, they might just be

telling the truth. So, as we have seen experts think

that animals or objects can be pulled up from a waterspout, you

can see an example of one here at the moment. It was captured in

Brighton. What happens is it is very much like a tornado, except it

is over water, we have the same column of spiralling air, and as it

moves across the water, it picks stuff up, it will throw out fish or

bits of debris, an old log, whatever comes in its path, it

won't make it terribly long, if it makes it to land it changes back to

a tornado. As well as fish, other bizarre items have rained down on

the earth, worms, that happened in Scotland, soft drinks' cans have

come down, and a turtle in Mississippi in the United States.

know millions of kids writing down the excuse for losing homework,

waterspout scooping it up! A quick update now. Pictures are

coming flying in. No waterspouts just yet. I doubt we will see any

of those. The great news is I have already got something from Swansea,

I knew they wouldn't let me down. It didn't take you very long. It

looks like not a bad little evening there. I have to saying, one thing

that is striking me is how blue everything is, there is a lot of

pleasant sunshine this evening. I was telling you earlier about

Belfast, and there is a weather front coming in had. Jonathan

Godfrey, you have sent us this picture of Belfast, it looks like

it might start raining. That weather front is heading towards

the east coast of Northern Ireland. It should be there by the end of

the programme. It will also swing maybe by the end of the programme,

maybe not, into the Mull of Kintyre, which is here. It is so important

that you do get in touch with us, we desperately want to know what is

happening with the weather now. I can't tell you how important it is

to the Met Office. It is now coming up to 8.00, you

have another 20 minutes to get the photographs to us. Take a picture

of the weather and send it to the website below.

It is an hour and 20 minutes until sundown now in the silly Isles. One

hour until that happens in London. You lucky Shetland islanders have

an hour and 54 minutes left. Here is what is to come on the show.

Craig Revel Horwood gets under the skin of our tanning obsession.

How do supermarkets forecast what you want tomorrow, yesterday. John

Kettley spills the meteorological beans, where is the best place to

find the sun this weekend. Also it will be August in four days time,

will it be a washout or a scourger? Stay tuned.

Quick question, sausage or burger? Me, I'm a fool for a chop, you know

that, Chris. Oops, we haven't ordered any. Millions of us, 120

million barbecues take place each year, I might have overdone the

sasauges, we buy them, burgers, the odd drumstick and a bit of salad

when the sun comes out. But how do the supermarkets know exactly what

to stock up on and when. As you go about your daily lives, did you

know, strange forces are at work. Weather is big business,

multinationals all over the world pay huge sums of money for long

range weather forecasts. But why? Well, a 2003 study revealed if

companies account for the weather within their business plans, it

could boost sales by �4.5 billion per year. One company that really

focuses on the weather, is the supermarket chain Sainsbury's. So

much so they have a strategic weather forecast meeting every day.

Morning everybody. They pay for incredibly detailed long range

weather forecasts so they can plan what goods to stock. They wouldn't

tell us how much that costs? Who is looking after Scotland? What they

did tell us is the technology allows them to work between eight

and ten days ahead. We need to downgrade the weekend from hot to

warm, based on the fact that it will be raining pretty much across

the region. West Midlands and East Anglia. Temperature and conditions

are unsettled until Saturday. they have the data it is up to them

to predict how the weather will affect consumer buying, or for you

and me what they put on the shelves? We need some macs and

umbrellas for the forecasted weather. So crucial is the weather

in the sales of some products, supermarkets only decide on the

quantteets to order one day in - quantities to order one day in vans.

It seems strange that a company this big would make decisions on

the weather? It defines what shoppers buy and defines what we do.

It is not just Sainsbury's, Tescos told us that the first sign in

frost peak as demand for cauliflowwer, long-life milk and

bird feed. In hot weather Sainsbury's can see the sales of

hair removal products increase by a whopping 400%. Barbecue sales can

leap up 200%, it pays to have them in stock. One of the items that is

most sensitive to changes in the weather is the modest lettuce leaf.

It is a nice sunny summer, what difference does it make in terms of

salad sales? Overall about 60% more salads, we have 22 million

customers a week, you can imagine the difference in warm summer or a

cool, wet summer is millions and millions. We buy �450 million bags

of salad a year. Because they have a short shelf life, supermarkets

are careful not to overstock. We receive the orders on the day

for the day of outload, freshness is citka. The orders transmitted to

- critical. The orders are transmitted from the factory, we

can have it cut at 8.00am, three hours later it is washed and on a

lorry by late afternoon. In good weather the farm could be

asked to supply twice the normal amount, but at the first sign of

rain that could all change. weather play as huge role in

influencing the orders, at the end of the day we're vulnerable to the

shopping habits of the consumer in the supermarket, they won't pick up

bag salads if it isn't the right weather. Shoppers respond

differently depending on where they live. In Scotland 20 degrees sees

BBQ sales triple. In London it has to reach 24 degrees before the same

statistic applies. There are common trends, supermarkets sell more ice-

cream on a sunny cool day than a cloudy day. While sales rise with

temperature, once it hits25 degrees, sales of tubbed ice-cream crop, as

people worry it will melt before they get home. The next time the

sun is shining and you reach for that BBQ in your local supermarket,

remember, they knew what you were going to buy before you did.

There is a lot more to weather than just eyes sow cars and weather

fronts. Later we will tell you the best places to find - isobars and

weather fronts. You have sent in your pictures.

Look at the colours. Lovely trees in the background. Some blue skies

there as well. A little bit of mist in this one.

But I must say I like this one, what is your name? Diab. Where is

that picture taken? The whirl. is it taken by? Brian Williams.

amazing memory, that is written on the back of the card, you didn't

need it. Look at the sun there, often people think the sun at

sunset is larger than it is perhaps at midday. But, of course, it is

not, it is an optical illusion, the sun is the same size all the time.

We have pictures you have sent in during the course of the week.

Another beauty of a sunset. Put simply, the sky is red here because

at sunset the light is travelling through more of the atmosphere. The

atmosphere is full of dust particle that is scatter the blue and the

green parts of the light spectrum. We have another one to show you as

well. The more dust particles there are in the atmosphere, you can see

it here too, the redder the sky ray peers. A different picture here is

sun pillars, that is a beauty, you don't often see this, a sun pillar

is basically a shaft of light coming from the top or bottom of

the sun during sunset or sunrise. It is caused by the light being

refracted during tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere. Thank you for

your fantastic pictures, next week we want your weird and wonderful

weather forecasts, you have seen maybe a tornado or a sun.

You are probably thinking what is a funny sun?

I know exactly what that is. One thing all footballers agree on,

even if they can't explain it properly, is the offside rule. Do

you know cricket fans have something they believe almost as

firmly, it is hard to explain, but it is to do with the cricket ball

and the weather. This man, Freddie Flintoff is about to explain it all.

Everyone knows that a certain great British game is always at the mercy

of the great British weather. But there is one weather-related

cricket phenomenon, that no-one has ever been able to explain. I play

professional cricket at the highest level for many years, I know the

weather can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a game. I don't

just mean bad light or rain stopping play, I'm on about things

that you may never have even thought about.

Cricketers from the thousands of local village teams up and down the

country, to some of the game's biggest stars, have an unshakeable

belief in the power of a cloudy sky. As a bowler my favourite conditions

to bowl are overcast cloudy conditions. As a batsman I like hot

sunny conditions, there is less swing, so subsequently you get more

runs, much more comfortable. the players I know believe that a

grey sky can help a bowled ball change direction. The most crucial

part for a bowler is swing, swing is when it leaves a fast bowler's

hand and you can see it move in the air. It is the one thing that

batsmen do not like. I believe that is caused a lot by the skill of the

bowler, but also overhead conditions. But don't just take my

word for it. I think the theory definitely works, I bowled hundreds

of balls throughout my career, the theory of when it swings I totally

agree with. Overcast, very cloudy, a little bit humid and sticky, the

ball would swing a lot more than on a hot day with clear blue skies.

When it is sunny the land heats up, and hot air prices from the land,

and what you need for swing is very, very still, stable conditions,

around the area of the pitch, about ten feet above. But when it is

cloudy, there is no hot air rising from the pitch, and therefore it is

a much more stable environment to allow the ball to swing.

Cricketers have probably become some of the best weather watchers I

have ever known. You wake up in the morning, you open the curtain, you

want to see clouds, especially when you are bowling. 2005 in the Ashes

when it was cloudy it swung and we took wirbgts, when the sun came out

the Australians scored runs, that is a common theory for a long

period of time. We think we have the proof and we think we have a

theory, does anyone outside the world of sport think we are right?

We have been studying this for about 60 years, and really,

basically all that effort has really shown us that weather

doesn't really seem to have that big an effect. Are you telling me,

atmospheric conditions don't effect the ball, are you telling me you

can't prove why they affect the ball? I believe you when you say it

affects it, but our knowledge doesn't explain why your ball

swings more. You are not disproving my theory? I'm not going to

disprove your theory, I can't prove it. Who can? I'm going to have to

go over Dr David's head. I'm going to speak to the man based at NASA,

he's the law on aerodynamics. There is a chance I might be out of my

depth. This bloke is going to be clever, he's a rocket scientists.

High, it is Fred. How are you. want to find out why cricket balls

swing. He has spent 30 years trying to answer this question. One of the

theories that has been around for a long time now is the seam on the

ball would be affected. In particular by absorbing moisture or

damp conditions, when we tested the ball, one of the things was to

expose the ball in a special humidity chamber and change the

humidity levels in a controlled manner. We got frustrated because

we couldn't see differences. In all our testing we couldn't find a

positive link between the conditions and the swing on the

cricket ball. No-one in the world has worked harder to prove what I

and millions of cricket fans think is true. It is pretty guting he

thinks it is all nonsense. Today has been interesting, I have

learned a few things. The one thing that hasn't happened now, is nobody

has disproved my theory. People say they can't prove it, but as of yet,

no-one has disproved it. I think it shows that science and cricket just

don't mix. I'm going to keep going, advising the lads, when it is

overcast and muggy, throw a swing ball! Cheers.

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the one and only,

Freddie Flintoff. Welcome to The Great British

Weather, that man from NASA, he just didn't know what was talking

about? I could have saved him 30 years of his life, I could have

saved him, that if he was studying on men on the moon, instead they

have been muck beg with cricket balls and disproving my theory. If

you speak to anyone in cricket the ball will swing when it is overcast.

We saw it last week at Lords. cricketers you take notice of the

weather. In your cricket teams in the past, who was the man who said,

I know what's happening right now, it will rain in 25 minutes?

Everyone in the team is an ardent weather watcher, you used to stand

in the field, every international ground you knew where the weather

came from. Back in the day before it got too professional, it

determined your night. At night you would see your clouds, you might

have a gamble can we go out tonight. Beautiful cloudless sky. Obviously

some Test Matchs are saved, some are lost by the weather, on the

whole would you say the weather has treated you kindly? In Sri Lanka we

had an embarrassing one, we knew it would be dark at 4.30, and we were

getting hammered. We started taking drinks out, we managed to save the

game. You say gamble, you moved on

quickly there. Before the game got too professional when I started.

The boys are saying it will pour down tomorrow, let's go for a

drinky poos, suddenly you wake up, sunshine, give me some examples

where you got caught out? There is a couple of times when you open the

curtains in the morning and think, no. But on the whole we got it

right. You must get to play in the most

fantastic claim climate, slilangka, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, you must

see amazing weather? In Zimbabwe we kept touring there, the under-19s,

and the England tour, they always sent on the rainy season, we had

four days out of 19 playing. The worst was slilang can, we played a

one-day international in 55 degrees of heat. We had to get a runner out

there because we were so dehydrated. You see the England cricketers

going bright pink and shelfing up? You come off and put the ice bath

on and the ice vest. It was good for the weight, you get a few pound

off. What is your favourite summer song? Favourite is Summertime, the

Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff. What is your favourite song, I

think know the answer to this? Bryan Adams Summer of 69. He's

brilliant, don't you think? Thank you, tonight we are coming live

from the Royal Observatory, where for centuries astronomers have

studied the sun. Because of it our planet is neither too hot nor too

cold. Without it we would have no light, no energy and no weather.

Get ready to meet the governor of the great wrirb weather.

- British weather. It has been running things for

four-and-a-half million years. Ruling over us from a distance of

93 million miles. It contains 99% of all the mass in our entire solar

system. Its surface is 5,500 Celsius.

Its core is 2,000-times hotter than that. Driven by continuous hydrogen

fusion, every second it creates the same amount of energy as one

trillion atomic bombs. As this energy and heat exploids from its

surface, it takes eight - explodes from its surface, it takes eight

minutes to reach our planet. Half a billionth of this energy makes it

to the earth's surface, this tiny fraction of its power is enough to

drive our entire climate. Evaporating water from our enormous

oceans and warming vast air masses to create global weather systems.

People of Britain, I give you, the sun! The sun is just setting here

in London, but not before we learn a little bit more about it. I'm

here with space scientist, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, and resident Royal

Observatory scientist, Marek Kukula. We have seen the manage any of sans

of the sun, so powerful. We - magnificence of the sun, so

powerful, we rarely fear it. What is going on in the solar system?

well as light, it is spitting out tiny particles, when they hit the

earth, the air molecules light up and we call them the northern light.

Other examples of solar power are sunspots, what are they? They are

quite interesting, like the earth the sun has magnetic field, but the

sun's is much stronger. Where you get a sort of collection of very,

very strong magnetic light you get sunspots. They are cooler than the

rest of the surface of the sun. This is where cor crown that

natural injections and huge matter particles get thrown out into the

surrounding space. When the sun goes in we get cold, do we get

mini-Ice Ages when we get the cold spots? There are parts of the earth

that get colder and that is when the sun might not be producing

sunspots, nobody knows what the connection is, that is why it is

important to study the sun to know about our climate. The other thing

I'm wondering about, eventually that will go out? Like all the

other stars in the universe, sun stars only have a certain lifetime,

they are like us, burn bright when they are young and as they are

older fatter round the milledle. Eventually what will happen is the

- the middle, eventually the sun will set bigger and take over the

planets, taking over Mercury and Venus, and the earth. When will

that happen? We have a good four or five billion years yet. We may

stilling on - still be on air by then. And Carol Kirkwood may still

be in her 30s? What a cheek. More e-mails have been coming, tonight

we have been asking you to e-mail about your favourite summer songs.

Stephen says Summer Loving from the Grease soundtrack. And Dover

Weather, what about that for a name. They say Blackhorse Sun by Sound

Garden. I have a nice story from Roger, he has picked You Are The

Sunshine Of My Life, he says the song came out in the summer of 1973

when Patricia and he fell in love and first met. They liked the song

and it became their tune. They got engaged in August 1974 and had this

song played in their wedding, after 37 years of marriage it is still

their song, they still go all gooey when they hear it. Later on we will

play out tonight's show with favourite summer song.

It has become a national obsession, most of us want it, millions of us

travel thousands of miles in search of it and millions fake it. What am

I talking about? Craig Revel Horwood has slipped on the tan.

Every dancer on Strictly knows there is nothing that sets the

floor alight like a gleaming tan. It is not just on the dance floor

bronzing reins supreme, it is the same across the country as each

summer millions of Brits invade our beaches, parks and lidos to offer

themselves to the sun in the mere hope of a deep lucious tan. Three

quarters of us like to have a tan at some time in the year. Nearly a

quarter go for the year round bronzed look. Not so long ago a tan

was not quite so sought after. Up until the early 20tsenttree, if

you had a tan it meant you must - 20th century, if you had a tan it

meant you worked outside and must be a member of the lower classes.

The as risk tocy did all they could do - aristocracy did all they could

to maintain pale skin and exposed blue vains, the origin of the -

veins, the origin of the phrase "blue blood". The poor were out in

the fields and had tans. But industrialisation and urbanisation

meant the poor went from the fields into the factories, therefore, they

were white. It actually became more attractive to have a tan.

And aside from vanity, a healthy justification began to emerge for

the latest faxable indulgence of the rich - fashionable indulgence

of the rich? Many medical professionals realised the benefits

of sun and used it to cure ricts, if you sunbathed, it was like

taking a sun cure. By the end of the last century Britain's holiday

industry was booming, and beaches up and down the country were packed

with sun worshippers revelling in the sun scourging temperatures. I

don't need to tell you that not all the summers here are scourging, and

the rise of the package holiday meant millions could afford to soak

up stronger sunshine abroad. Uninitiated Brits began to get

seriously sunburned. Something the rest of the world had managed to

avoid for thousands of years. you mind, darling, if I

demonstrated some ancient lovely suntan lotions on you? The ancient

Egyptians considered light skin more beautiful than dark skin. To

achieve the paler look in the climate they used rice brand

extract. Modern pharmacologyists refer to it as gamma orizable, its

UV properties are used in sun lotions today. Not very prak kel,

everything would get stuck to you. - Practical, it would get stuck to

you. In ancient Greece Olympic athletes would smother themselves

in sand and oil. The oil meant the sand could be rubbed all over the

body, as the olympians believed the tiny grains could scatter the UV

rays. Christopher Columbus noted in 1592 that islanders used colour

pigment as sun block. Red was their favourite colour. Do you wear this

on your entire body for the full day? No, because it doesn't rub in.

After 500 years of sun worshiping, things have really changed. These

days you don't even need the sun to get a tan, you can spray it on, or

you can rub it in? Concerns about sun exposure and skin cancer have

resulted in a �100 million market in fake tanning, but which part of

Great Britain is forking out the most to fake it. Essex very

definitely. People in Newcastle, head to toe orange. Probably

Scotland. Liverpool because my grandma is tanned all year round,

she's from there. It is true, a whopping 59% of Merseysideers admit

to faking it five or more times each mond. Probably almost as much

as - month, probably almost as much as some people I know! Can you

imagine us lot on Strictly Come Dancing, without our golden glow?

No. Neither can I! Of course the important thing you must remember

is if you sunbathe, please use sunscreen. You didn't need me to

tell you that. I'm joined by a man who is so good they wrote a song

about them, yes, it is John Kettley. I don't know whether it is so good,

I don't get the weather forecast right all the time. Nobody has

written a song about me. I certainly knew it.

A lot of people heading off on holiday this weekend, for people

who want to be holidaying in the British Isles, give me your top

three spots? You mentioned elusive summer, it is still elusive, still

is. This is a retrospective forecast, the good news, Glasgow,

everybody watching from Glasgow has had five fantastic days, they have

had 70 hours of sunshine up there in Glasgow. Isn't it nice to see

Greenland again. Steady now. There is a few hot spots coming up in the

next few days. It is not settled. We know the cloud and rain in the

west. A few hot spots in the next few day, always the chance of some

rain. If you are going anywhere, it is a space I adore, I have to say,

it is down around swanage, if the rain comes down you can go to

Crawph Castle. The peak district and the Yorkshire Dales will have

some sunshine, temperatures up to 23 on the south coast 26, not bad.

A good mix of Clement summer weather. People's expectations here

are too high. Let's talk about Europe. Where are

the hot spots in Europe? Once we get through to this time of year,

July, August, it is not weather any more, it is climatology. I by that

you mean it is just roasting hot? It is generally the same and pretty

hot. Inland Spain and Portugal, inland turkey 35-40 degrees. If you

are going down to the coast, you are probably looking at 32-34. The

balance lairbacks, you are norm - Balariaic, strangely thunderstorms,

normally very hot. If you go further across into Italy, Greece,

Turkey and Cyprus, you are looking at temperatures 30-32 for the next

few weeks. We are four days away from August, then there is only a

month left of us, so tell us, is it going to be a scourger or a

washout? I like to think that September is an extension of summer.

We should look forward to good weather in September. I think Bill

hit the nail on the head last week and said three or four days and the

rain comes back. That sums it up for the next month. August will

still be mixed. Certainly the potential after a few nice days of

wet weather next week. That's John's prediction for August, how

is it looking tonight, it is time to reveal the result ones the live

weather map. It looks fantastic, look at the

amount of blue, for starters on the map.

Thank you very much everybody at home, you have really embraced the

idea. First of all I didn't think we would get the Orkney Isles, but

we did. We are up here in the Shetlands, well done to everybody

concerned. I'm in the right place, you are looking very carefully.

Something else to point out, Northern Ireland, earlier we were

talking about a weather front going through Northern Ireland, here is

the picture before the front went through, the choud built, the rain

came, and then - the cloud built and the rain came, and then behind

it brightened up beautifully, the weather cloud is more into Bangor,

and hopefully by the end of the programme, we could well see some

rain. No fire tornadoes. I'm going to create a fire tornado. See you

in a minute. I hope you have your eyebrows next

time I see you. The forecast tomorrow, picking up

on the weather front will continue its journey, moving through the

rest of Scotland, into the north of England heading south. Ahead of it

for southern England tomorrow, it will be fairly cloudy to start the

day, the cloud will break, we will see sunshine, and it will warm up,

behind it for Scotland and Northern Ireland, well it's going to be a

brighter picture than today. So thank you to everyone who sent us a

picture tonight, and as always check out the website as you might

find your snap on it. So the moment has arrived, it is

now time to recreate one of the deadliest phenomenas seen in

weather. It is a fire tornado created by our very own Chris

Collins. First and foremost, do not do this

at home. I have loads of health and safety people around, and the

equipment. We want lots of peak down here a forest fire in here,

getting increasing amounts of heat and then creating a bit of wind. I

will create a bit of heat and petrol here. I will put it all into

here. Then we need this swirling wind. We need a vortex to go in and

create the tornado effects. I will put that in here very, very

carefully. I'm going to take the petrol out. I will light the petrol

getting heat in there. Now I need to create a bit of wind here.

Fingers crossed everybody. Is that a fire tornado? Bit too

much wind, we have lost it a little bit, that is the fire tornado. I

have never seen that done before. Well done, thank you to everybody

who has come along to Greenwich here in London tonight. It has been

brilliant. And you can hear our favourite summer song playing now,

it is the classic In The Summer Time by Mungo injury. We are deep