24/12/2015 Weather World

This is Weather World. Storms, science and the stories behind the

weather making news. That is a so far going down the river. Coming up,

Cumbria underwater again. The floodwaters have weighed up their

living room windows. Can you believe people have decided to stay indoors?

Storm Desmond brings a deluge and record rainfall. Events today appear

unprecedented, even surpassing the 2005 and 2009 floods. Floods become

rivers. I don't know if I can speak. It is the second time we have gone

through it. Also, migrant misery as summer turns into winter. Very hard.

Hard for the children, hard for the women. Sometimes I cry. El Nino hits

hard. This reservoir has completely dried up. It goes to show how severe

the Blyte is. -- the Blyte. Making waves to

prepare for a warmer, wetter future. Welcome to Weather World. This time

I am in Scotland at historic St Andrews, the home of golf. I will be

meeting the people who try to play that might make this course playable

even in severe weather. But first... Heavy rain and strong winds have

brought chaos to part of the country as hundreds of people are forced to

flee from their homes. The weather pattern was all too familiar. For

the third time in over a decade incessant rain slammed into the --

slammed into north-west England. We have got the highest tier of weather

warning we have ever seen. And floodwaters inundating the towns and

cities downstream, including Keswick. After 13 hours of rain,

nothing was going to stop this river, not even the flood defences.

The barriers are somewhere under here. There is concern the nearby

bridges in a dangerous state. It is a bit scary with the houses being so

high. It has never been this high before. But it is the sheer volume

of water that did the damage as the UK enjoyed its wettest 24 hours on

record, with 341 millimetres of rain falling in the Lake District. The

events today surpassed the 2005 and 2009 floods. The amount of rainfall

and water levels is vast and we are working very hard to protect the

properties and particularly the life risk. That is a carriage going down

the river. The situation there must be pretty awful. It really is. That

tells the story. That water, at nine o'clock this morning, was just at

the bottom of people's doors in Appleby. Within half an hour it was

rising rapidly. The floodwaters halfway up their living room

windows. Can you believe that people have decided to stay indoors? And

from the Lake District the floodwaters swept into Carlisle

again. Nearly 48 hours after a record-breaking deluge caused these

floods, Carlisle's Road sluglike canals. Thousands of homes have been

ruined in the east of the city. After being stranded for two nights

in the dark without power, the casualties were still coming this

morning. The once trying to tough it out finally gave in. And if you have

lived here for more than ten years this is the second time disaster has

struck. I don't even know if I can speak because it is the second time

we have gone through it. As the clean-up operation began, the

community spirit kicked in. How important is it for you to do it?

Think it is very important, helping the community when there has been so

much devastation. There is so much that needs to be done. This is just

one street. But every home here has been flooded. To help families, the

Government has promised ?50 million, money to rebuild lives. This is what

is left of Natalie's home. She says her insurance will not cover the

damage. With this cash help? Any bit of help is welcome. We have never

done this before. We have only been here a year. So any help we could

get would be greatly appreciated. This is the late district village of

Glenn Reading being flooded for the second time in the same week as more

rain follows Storm Desmond. For the Brown family, who have owned this

shop for 30 years, it is therefore flawed. There is nothing we can do.

We watched it coming down the road. It caught us out. We could not do

anything. It was not just northern England but Northern Ireland that

was flooded. And here in the Scottish Borders. Storm Desmond's

impact felt far and wide. But it was Cumbria and the Lake District hit

hardest. To we were driving along the banks of the River Eden and we

came across this caravan park. Have a look at the destruction caused by

the force of the water on the other side of the bank. Many caravans have

been smashed together and smashed against the trees. Obviously

completely destroyed. It is more akin to the sort of thing you would

see in Tornado Alley States. Not really Cumbria in the

UK. What is going wrong with our weather? Scientists say the strong

El Nino may have contributed to the stormy start to winter and record

winter will rainfall may also be linked to climate change. The latest

research says that under the same weather pattern and extended period

of rainfall is sometimes more likely because of the emissions of

greenhouse gases. We have seen what Storm Desmond did.

Britain's first officially named storm, Abigail, in November. What

may look like snow is actually foam ripped up -- whipped up by strong

winds. Here we are at the famous St Andrews

golf course. When they host the Open here, the best players come to take

it on. But they are taking on the weather, too.

An early morning deluge and a three-hour delay to play on day two

of the 2015 Open. As the floods were swept away, more bad weather was

about to sweep in. We have another suspension in play

this morning. The golfers have been out there for half an hour. But the

winds are so strong, the balls are moving around on the green.

Let's talk to someone who was here that we don't, Steve North. The wind

picking up today but that weekend was wild? Absolutely. Quite rightly

play was abandoned. Even on the tournament days it was pretty wind

-- windy. Can you ever prepare for wind that strong? Not when it is

that strong. We can prepare for normal windy conditions like today.

We have got a unit here called track man. It follows the ball in real

time. Today with the wind downwind, the ball travels further but moves

to the left side. We have also got a function in the unit that we can

normalise exactly what that shot those. It should have a relatively

straight flight. Let's see how it works. We will aim towards the

monument and we will look at the laptop afterwards. I will take dead

aim. A pretty good shot there. It travelled to the left-hand side like

I mentioned. If we look in the unit we can see the ball flight. If we

normalise here on the left-hand side, you can see how the shot was

straight without the wind. You can have a go accounting for the Saint

Andrews went? Absolutely. -- wind. Coming up later, we look at how they

deal with rain here. Sometimes it can rain so much, so hard, you

cannot do anything about it. Another car caught in another

flawed. This view is from inside the car. There is someone still inside

it. I am rolling down some sort of Creek in the middle of this weather.

I have called 9/11. They told me to stay in the car. Kerry Packer

filming his personal flood drama in Texas. A storm he is lucky to

survive by climbing a tree. With weather like that you would think we

have not to worry about here on Earth. But there is an expanding

area of interest above our atmosphere, space weather. I will

find out all about it in a moment inside this observatory.

There has been a lots to look up and wonder at in recent months,

including the night in September the moon turned from silver to red.

Viewable by billions around the world, a super Moon lunar eclipse,

the best in 30 years. In Europe, the highlight of the year

was the solar eclipse seen from the Faroe Islands, turning day into

night. But beat this. Caught on camera in Norway in October.

Humpbacked whales swimming beneath the Aurora, Bury Northern Lights.

I have come inside the observatory to find Scotland's largest

telescope. All well and good if you want a close-up of the moon and

stars. But for a good handle on space weather, you need access from

-- access to data from satellites which you download onto a simple

laptop. It is all about eruptions from the sun. I'm joined by a

professor who studies this. Space weather is all about these huge

explosions happening on the sun and injecting huge clouds of energetic

material, particle struggling towards the Earth at high speeds.

Why do we care that it is coming our way? All this energetic material

interacts with the magnetic field of the Earth and can interfere with

electronics, on satellites, and that disturbs communications. Things like

GPS, air traffic control and even just your Wi-Fi. I guess it is

really useful to know it is coming our way to forecast that? There is

work being done here to get better at that? All of these events on the

sun are driven by the sun's magnetic field. You want to model the

behaviour of the sun's magnetic field so you can give people as much

warning as possible to prepare for one of these events. Good luck with

all of the work being done here. Happy space weather watching. Still

to come... A cliff becomes a waterfall again for the first time

in living memory. The Ocean can be a dangerous place,

especially if you are not fully equipped for it. This is the North

Sea. But it is the Mediterranean that has been the focus this year as

hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed it into Europe. Some

have not made it, falling victim to high winds and Roth sees.

-- rough. Strong winds batter the Greek island of Lesbos as more

bodies are swept ashore. More than 130 people drowned in October alone.

Despite the bad weather, the boats kept coming, their occupants helped

ashore by volunteers. Some were overwhelmed. Others were shocked,

soaked and shivering. This constant flow of people may have slowed in

the last 24 hours as the winds have picked up. But this shows women,

children and men are prepared to risk their lives whatever the

weather. Once into Europe, the onward journey

for these people is becoming increasingly difficult, as autumn

and now winter weather sets in. This is the scene from Macedonia in

October. Very hard, the weather. Abdullah and

his family escaped from Syria. They left everything behind. Very hard

for children, hard for women, hard cover old men, old women. Sometimes

I cry. And for those that remain in Syria, winters can be harsh. This

was last winter with snow and freezing temperatures. This winter

Damascus has had a record cold night. But it is heat and man's

contribution to the warming of the planet that could affect us all, say

scientists. In the media, the ground turns to dust from three years of

drought will stop 2015 will likely be proclaimed the hottest year on

record. From one extreme to another. A

warmer atmosphere can be a better one, too. I am here in the

Netherlands to understand the force of a flood they spent ?20 million

making. The waves are travelling the length

of this tank, 300 metres. They are and 9 million litres of water. That

is what you need to create the world's largest artificial waves,

reaching a height of more than five metres. Waves mimicking sea

conditions can be made to order. For any part of the world it can create

a horror came racing army. -- hurricane. The fightback against

flooding starts here. These man-made waves will help engineers design the

very best sea defences. If scientists are correct, our future

could be a much wetter one. The prospect of a different future

lead to this. Nearly 200 nation treating a

landmark agreement in December to work to limit global warming to less

than two Celsius by the end of the century. Sometimes when you want to

make a change, it is necessary to turn the world upside down. It is

not for the better but it is simply for the best. This agreement should

be the turning point in our story, a turning point for all of us. Thank

you. Climate change brings the

possibility of bigger, more frequent storms, and the prospect of

increased coastal erosion. The UK and Scotland has a lot of coast that

could erode. One man interested in that is Tom from St Andrews

University. Why have you brought us here? This is one of many hundreds

of sites around the coast being threatened by erosion. You can see a

medieval castle. In the cliff face you can see some of the buildings.

You have two imagine a whole range year that has fallen into the sea.

This is one of many hundreds ranging from prehistoric sites to the

remnants of the Second World War. We are working with local communities

to record some of these sites. This is accelerating because of bigger,

more frequent storms? We hear stories from locals that there is

more damage but we find it hard to measure this. We know that with any

one single storm there is the potential for great damage. That is

why we are asking people to keep their eyes and ears open and report

to us. This could keep you busy for many years? Yes. But it is an

opportunity as well. It means we have the chance of getting some

fantastic information about our past.

We are talking a lot about how we are influencing our weather on

earth. What about natural weather variability? One of the main aspects

of that recently has been El Nino. Seen from space, Patricia, the most

powerful hurricane ever recorded, heads towards Mexico in October. But

Mexico was ready and lucky, as the storm made landfall where relatively

few people live. The severe flooding swept into the USA. It derailed this

train in Texas as water engulfed the tracks. Unprecedented rain hit

Japan. Dramatic rooftop rescues in September as a Tropical Storm Issac

hit an area north of Tokyo. Tens of thousands were left homeless. The

power of the flood is there to say. Stronger tropical cyclones are one

weather outcome from El Nino. A natural occasional warming of the

Pacific ocean. This El Nino is one of the strongest we have seen. The

ripple effects have been seen around the world in weather patterns. China

and Beijing's skyline in September, barely visible through the smog. The

city and its first ever red alert for pollution. El Nino means fewer

weather systems to help clear and clean the air. In India, El Nino is

blamed for a drier south-west monsoon. But the opposite in Chennai

in December as the north-west monsoon produced several days of

rain and flooding. But in Africa El Nino is being blamed for a drought.

Here in Ethiopia the reins are have failed again, leaving parched

scrawny cattle and millions of people in need of food aid. At this

well things are getting desperate. People travelled here from miles

around to give their livestock a drink. But the water table has

fallen to almost nothing. 30, maybe 40 metres down, it is full of silt

and mod. The well is almost dry. And South Africa is suffering, too.

The worst drought since 1982, with millions facing water shortages.

This is rather unusual. Under normal circumstances I would be waist high

in water. This reservoir has completely dried up. It goes to show

how severe the drought is. Back at St Andrews. I'm about to go where

the public does not say. The slightly less glamorous side of

things but very important. We talked earlier about wind. Now we are

looking at what happens to the rain. A lot of it falls and a lot of it

finds its way from the course into this water tank. 750,000 gallons of

water. Some of that will find its way back onto the course through

what happens here. Gordon Mcquay is in charge. Where are we and what are

we doing? This controls the water that goes onto the golf course. The

water goes through these five pumps. A maximum capacity of 500 cubic

metres of water. It goes through the pipe work and head out through the

wall onto the golf courses to give us the irrigation we require. At the

Open Championship you had a deluge. As that caused big problems? Yes, it

caused us a wee problem as it came in such a short space of time. We

are experienced enough. It's that up pretty well. Sometimes when the

weather arrives like it did you have to deal with it. Thank you very

much. Before we go, here are a low-cost -- here is a look at some

of your weather pictures. All of these photographs were taken

by BBC weather Watchers, a new online club telling the story of the

UK weather. Here is how you can join. Simply sign up for a BBC ID

and give yourself a Weather Watchers username. Add your home reporting

location and away you go. You can or pure -- upload a photo of the

weather. And even add rainfall amounts if you're feeling

particularly scientific. Sometimes even the worst weather can

produce something breathtaking. The same storm Desmond that brought

devastating floods to north-west England brought life to this

waterfall in the Yorkshire Dales, thought to have been dry for

centuries. That is something that none of us in the village have ever

seen before. Wow! From very wet to very dry. A dust

whirlwind in Australia, where this one was caught on camera at a music

festival. A sort of blue sky tornado. And finally, with winter

now well under way, spare a thought for the American groundhog, called

upon by tradition each February to predict whether spring might come

early. Last winter in Wisconsin this may govern and tree was not

expecting, from Jimmy, now a hero among groundhogs. That is it from

wet and windy St Andrews. What will 2016 bring?

Keep checking the forecast. Hello. A spell of heavy rain is

bushing eastwards across England.