:00:00. > :00:00.so we have annihilated your nihilistic beliefs. Now it is time
:00:00. > :00:00.for where the world. Nick Miller looks back at three months of
:00:07. > :00:15.extreme weather around the world. Welcome to whether world, our latest
:00:16. > :00:21.look at the weather making news and the science behind it. Coming up,
:00:22. > :00:31.flooded Britain, the damage. The destruction. As record rain and
:00:32. > :00:36.raging rivers sweep through towns and cities, the battle to recover
:00:37. > :00:42.and repair. The only way to bring this equipment in is by the year.
:00:43. > :00:48.This stretch of the River, all along the roads are extensively cut off.
:00:49. > :00:54.Windsor white out, record snow as blizzards smother some of the US's
:00:55. > :00:59.biggest cities. The advices find a safe place and stay there. Europe's
:01:00. > :01:06.migrant crisis goes on through winter's call this month.
:01:07. > :01:10.TRANSLATION: We're on a of death. We can endure. I'm worried about the
:01:11. > :01:15.children. Also in the next half-hour, direct it, the most
:01:16. > :01:21.powerful cyclone on record to strike Fiji. Arctic deepfreeze, find out
:01:22. > :01:29.what is inside the safest place on earth. From one end of the Earth to
:01:30. > :01:33.another, three decades on, Peter gives revisits the weatherman's most
:01:34. > :01:35.southerly workplace. After two weeks it's the, finally we have reached
:01:36. > :01:59.our objective, Antarctica. I am in the historic city of York,
:02:00. > :02:04.one place it by flooding during the UK's second wettest winter. Just
:02:05. > :02:09.happens to be where I was born. In the next half-hour personal tour of
:02:10. > :02:13.a city on the flooding front line. This is how it does a couple of
:02:14. > :02:17.months ago. Only from the air you can fully appreciate the expense of
:02:18. > :02:24.ground covered by the floods in New York. It is from the air health was
:02:25. > :02:28.being flown in. The RAF delivering machinery to repair a flood barrier.
:02:29. > :02:33.The to bring the equipment in is by the air. All along this stretch of
:02:34. > :02:39.the River Foss, the roads are extensively cut off. All they do is
:02:40. > :02:44.stranded in their homes have been ferried to safety. By boat or
:02:45. > :02:57.piggyback. The job to get absolutely every bone delete -- everyone to dry
:02:58. > :03:01.ground. Thousands of homes were without power after widespread
:03:02. > :03:05.flooding. It came from the Christmas storm that drenched the hills of
:03:06. > :03:10.northern England. The force of the floodwater was stronger here. This
:03:11. > :03:19.200 years old former pub on a bridge collapsed, crumbling into the water.
:03:20. > :03:22.In the Yorkshire town of Tadcaster, this 18th century bridge finally
:03:23. > :03:27.meets a flood it cannot withstand. The collapse cutting the town in
:03:28. > :03:32.two. Flooding is also it southern parts of the USA. Scenes from
:03:33. > :03:43.sexist, the record river levels reported in Louisiana and
:03:44. > :03:48.Mississippi. In South America, flood striking several countries,
:03:49. > :03:57.including the route, where intense rain transformed rivers into raging
:03:58. > :04:02.torrents. It sometimes rains only righted -- rains in the United Arab
:04:03. > :04:06.Emirates, but you rarely see pictures. According to reports,
:04:07. > :04:12.publishing pictures of this could be punishable by the country's cyber
:04:13. > :04:16.crime laws. Back in York, as with any flood, the waters recede, but
:04:17. > :04:21.the mess left behind can take months to clear and repair. Then there is
:04:22. > :04:26.always the thought, will it happen again? York is getting back to
:04:27. > :04:30.normal, the river has gone down. The history of York is one that goes
:04:31. > :04:37.hand-in-hand with flooding. Somebody who knows all about that is Doctor
:04:38. > :04:44.Mark White and from the University of York. Why is York so prone to
:04:45. > :04:48.flooding? This river is 60 metres wide, it was about twice the width
:04:49. > :04:52.in Roman times. More space for the water to flow. The river could
:04:53. > :04:58.spread out within the channel over the flood plain. Since then over the
:04:59. > :05:02.last 2000 years the banks of the River have been built in words, into
:05:03. > :05:07.the channel, into the river flood plain. Built up with buildings, very
:05:08. > :05:14.cleverly densely built. As you can see. This is happier flecked -- this
:05:15. > :05:18.has had the effect of restricting the River, the only way the
:05:19. > :05:24.floodwaters kendo is up, resulting in flooding that we saw a couple of
:05:25. > :05:28.months ago. There is a man-made element to this. Other examples in
:05:29. > :05:32.other parts of the world? This is a widespread phenomenon. The most
:05:33. > :05:37.severe example was the tragic flooding in Florence, in northern
:05:38. > :05:43.Italy, in 1966, causing the loss of about 100 lives. 5000 families
:05:44. > :05:48.having to be rehoused. Severe damage to the city's artistic heritage.
:05:49. > :05:52.Similar phenomenon. The river flowing down from the man thins,
:05:53. > :05:57.through a constricted river channel. The Renaissance city of Florence
:05:58. > :06:01.having been built out to where the river had formally flowed. In that
:06:02. > :06:07.case the consequences were severe and tragic. Thank you very much.
:06:08. > :06:12.Talking about the UK's wet winter, also very mild. Not the case
:06:13. > :06:17.everywhere. If you look hard enough you can find proper winter weather.
:06:18. > :06:23.A massive blizzard takes aim at 75 million Americans. In the middle of
:06:24. > :06:28.the USA's warmest winter on record, a massive blizzard hitting the North
:06:29. > :06:34.East, paralysing the country's biggest cities. Here we are 24-hour
:06:35. > :06:36.whizzing, this is the nation's capital on a busy Saturday
:06:37. > :06:45.afternoon, or it should be. The roads have been abandoned, 13 inches
:06:46. > :06:49.of snow have fallen overnight. We are inspecting a further ten inches
:06:50. > :06:55.over the next few hours. Many more hours of this storm still to come.
:06:56. > :07:02.In New York, a record, the most snowy day. The storm dumped 68
:07:03. > :07:09.centimetres in total. In Washington, DC, a white out at the White House.
:07:10. > :07:12.A snowstorm to rival or lovers. In Europe, the arrival of winter's
:07:13. > :07:18.Gulbis months to their toll on migrants seeking shelter in camps in
:07:19. > :07:23.the Balkans. This man has travelled from Syria. He is cold, exhausted
:07:24. > :07:30.and suffering from a painful chest infection. Despite the cold
:07:31. > :07:34.conditions, or maybe because of them, people are determined to
:07:35. > :07:40.continue the journey further north. Around two: that is Serbia. As you
:07:41. > :07:45.can see, this little boy trying to make the journey now, the ground is
:07:46. > :07:52.icy, the journey is even more treacherous in these conditions.
:07:53. > :08:00.This family has travelled around 2000 kilometres from Syria.
:08:01. > :08:04.TRANSLATION: We're on a journey of death, he tells me. We can endure,
:08:05. > :08:14.but I'm worried about the children. The cold, disease. Winter has not
:08:15. > :08:21.them the flow of people reaching Europe. The United Nations saying
:08:22. > :08:26.more than 130,000 people arrived by sea ingest the first two months of
:08:27. > :08:32.the year. In China, what looks like winter's date is far from it. The
:08:33. > :08:38.first snow in almost 70 years in this province. Cold air unusually
:08:39. > :08:42.sweeping south. For many the freezing weather, and the chance to
:08:43. > :08:47.touch snow was a novelty. TRANSLATION: Never seen snowfall
:08:48. > :08:52.there, as a native Cantonese. Excited to see it, sorry it lasted
:08:53. > :08:57.for only 20 minutes. Snow sweeping innerspring began in the UK. The
:08:58. > :09:01.warm winter relenting, providing a challenge for motorists, more used
:09:02. > :09:07.to driving through floods than frozen water. Finally, from the
:09:08. > :09:12.snow, the best video you will see they risk real hunting for not in
:09:13. > :09:17.Estonia. Developments in the Pacific as I speak. In February, Fiji
:09:18. > :09:26.bracing for a direct hit from Winston. The strongest cyclone ever
:09:27. > :09:31.to make landfall. Fiji is no stranger to cyclones, not like this.
:09:32. > :09:38.Winston is thought to be amongst the biggest storms ever recorded in the
:09:39. > :09:45.southern hemisphere. Winds gusting up to 325 kilometres per hour.
:09:46. > :09:51.Causing widespread damage. Emergency services will focus on trying to
:09:52. > :09:56.reach Morimoto areas. Aerial video soon after the storm passed revealed
:09:57. > :10:00.the extent of the destruction. Entire communities flattened, the
:10:01. > :10:05.death toll rising to more than 40 people, with thousands homeless. A
:10:06. > :10:08.storm like that cycling could come and go in a matter of hours, the
:10:09. > :10:13.mess left behind could take months to clean up. As we heard in York,
:10:14. > :10:18.many storms there are many floods, for businesses close to the river,
:10:19. > :10:23.they have had to clear up many times, like this. You are the
:10:24. > :10:28.landlord, nice to see you. You have been a quite a while, seen a lot of
:10:29. > :10:34.floods. 29 years, since 1987, numerous floods will stop every time
:10:35. > :10:37.you flood, you do something extra to make yourself a bit more flood
:10:38. > :10:44.resilient, rebuilding better and better? This time, what we have
:10:45. > :10:48.done, we have put stone floors down, making the bar out of bricks. We
:10:49. > :10:55.have got rid of all the wood from the columns. Just basically to make
:10:56. > :11:02.us more flood resistant. You have got rid of the wood. I can spot a
:11:03. > :11:06.wooden floor. That is there to break the pub up, give it a bit of
:11:07. > :11:12.character. We don't monitor look like prison cell. Basically to give
:11:13. > :11:16.it a bit of character. It is historic York? After rule. You have
:11:17. > :11:22.to attract the punters. Something else I have noticed, you have pub
:11:23. > :11:27.furniture, looks like it is anchored in place, you can move it to safety?
:11:28. > :11:31.We have built the seating in, making them out of bricks. For the seating
:11:32. > :11:37.areas, they will come out in sections. We can get it out, moved
:11:38. > :11:41.upstairs. When the water is here, how to get rid of it? We have a lot
:11:42. > :11:45.of pumps, we have invested a lot of money. As long as the Electric is
:11:46. > :11:50.on, we can pump it out fairly quickly. The problem is the mess
:11:51. > :11:55.that is left behind? The big problem, not just the river water,
:11:56. > :11:59.which makes a hell of a mess. It is the drains, the sewerage, things
:12:00. > :12:07.like that. A big clean-up operation. All behind you now. Back open, best
:12:08. > :12:11.of luck for a busy summer season. That is it from York for now. Back
:12:12. > :12:16.later in the programme to look at some new thinking on natural flood
:12:17. > :12:17.defences. Now he was a look at some of your pictures from flooded
:12:18. > :12:41.Britain after another winter. While storm clouds became the norm
:12:42. > :12:46.overwinter, these snake Reus, or mother of pearl clothes, made a rare
:12:47. > :12:52.appearance, as spotted by BBC Weather Watchers in February. They
:12:53. > :12:57.are funded ice crystals within the very cold stratosphere, normally in
:12:58. > :13:00.the skies above polar regions, and a very unusual in the skies above the
:13:01. > :13:07.UK. Still to come... El Nino, droughts,
:13:08. > :13:17.and hairy panic down under. An invasion of Australian tumbleweed.
:13:18. > :13:21.The UK's wet winter provided some memorable images, but few as
:13:22. > :13:25.dramatic as this from the Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge, an empty bus
:13:26. > :13:30.swept downstream by the raging floodwaters.
:13:31. > :13:34.This is that very spot. Fraser, you are from the Environment Agency, you
:13:35. > :13:40.grew up around here and know the area well, the speed and force of
:13:41. > :13:44.that blood was incredible? It was. The Boxing Day Flood will certainly
:13:45. > :13:49.not be forgotten. We had an incredible amount of rainfall, all
:13:50. > :13:55.of the rain gauges, the river gauges, exceeded all the records.
:13:56. > :13:58.You can see some of the damage that happened that morning from the force
:13:59. > :14:05.of the water. If you look around where we are, we are surrounded by
:14:06. > :14:09.hills, which must lend itself to the rapid response that you see here? We
:14:10. > :14:15.call the other Calder Valley a rapid response catchment, the water runs
:14:16. > :14:19.off rapidly into streams and villages, funnelled down to the
:14:20. > :14:24.bottom of the valley, causing the river to rise rapidly. As we saw on
:14:25. > :14:31.Boxing Day, the rivers could not cope with it. That is different to
:14:32. > :14:37.how yorker floods? Available York, some of those areas are slow
:14:38. > :14:40.responding to the rainfall, then lots of time for preparation in
:14:41. > :14:48.advance of the flood. The opposite is the case here, which is why we
:14:49. > :14:54.have things like the flood sirens to provide an early warning. Weather a
:14:55. > :14:58.York flood or a Hebden Bridge rapid flood, people have to clear up and
:14:59. > :15:05.rebuild, and many people here are still doing that. Is has started
:15:06. > :15:10.moving. Loads. The devastating floods came as the UK was battered
:15:11. > :15:15.by storm after storm, partly because of the global weather phenomenon El
:15:16. > :15:18.Nino, which also lifted global temperatures to new heights as 2015
:15:19. > :15:24.is confirmed as the hottest year on record. Areas shown in red or orange
:15:25. > :15:28.were warmer than average last year, the record heat has continued into
:15:29. > :15:34.20 Dean. Although some areas have been warm and wet, others have
:15:35. > :15:39.become exceptionally dry. Severe drought conditions are expanding
:15:40. > :15:42.across southern and eastern Africa, billions face food shortages and are
:15:43. > :15:51.becoming reliant on foreign aid as crops fail. Their cattle are their
:15:52. > :15:56.life savings. Much valued, fiercely protected. Here at the only well
:15:57. > :16:02.still flowing in many miles, the investment is only just being kept
:16:03. > :16:05.alive. Not one that two rains have failed, and with a El Nino
:16:06. > :16:13.threatening to prolong the drought, the cattle herders are getting
:16:14. > :16:19.desperate. TRANSLATION: The worst drought to heads about way in three
:16:20. > :16:24.decades. A quarter of the country's population faces food shortages.
:16:25. > :16:27.President Robert Mugabe declared a state of disaster, paving the way
:16:28. > :16:33.for international donors to help out. TRANSLATION: This is getting
:16:34. > :16:39.worse. My cattle are dying. If the situation does not change, we will
:16:40. > :16:44.also die. I will be forced to sell all of my cattle to feed my family.
:16:45. > :16:48.There have been downpours in recent days, bringing relief in some areas
:16:49. > :16:53.where farmers are still hoping for modest harvests, but the sparse
:16:54. > :16:59.rainfall patterns may do very little to alleviate the current situation.
:17:00. > :17:03.In Australia, a record warm start to summer in Tasmania sparked
:17:04. > :17:07.bushfires, devastating a world Heritage area with trees more than
:17:08. > :17:14.1000 years old. And this could be one of the more bizarre side of El
:17:15. > :17:20.Nino, dry, hot weather in the Australian state of the Tory leads
:17:21. > :17:23.to hairy panic, the local name for a fast-growing tumbleweed blowing into
:17:24. > :17:30.this town just as quickly as it can be cleared away. Back in York,
:17:31. > :17:35.talking about flooding, Professor Colin Brown from the University of
:17:36. > :17:40.York joins me. Flood defences, where are we? We are just to the north of
:17:41. > :17:48.the city. This is like a huge reservoir. There is a sluice gate a
:17:49. > :17:53.couple of: it is up the road. When the river rises and floats, it is
:17:54. > :17:58.then trapped inside this natural reservoir, natural wash land area,
:17:59. > :18:05.we keep the weather until the flood subsides and we open the sluice gate
:18:06. > :18:06.which will let the river water back into the river. You can see the
:18:07. > :18:13.heights we can accommodate. Man-made, engineered, concrete, but
:18:14. > :18:17.you are interested not in what goes on here but more in where the rain
:18:18. > :18:22.falls in the hills, holding some of it there? There is a limit to the
:18:23. > :18:26.storage we can get near to towns and cities. If we can work in rural
:18:27. > :18:30.areas at the top of the catchment, work with landowners and farmers to
:18:31. > :18:38.get natural structures into slow the water, that will help a great deal.
:18:39. > :18:41.You have a project on the go trailing that? We are working in
:18:42. > :18:46.Leicestershire on a water friendly farming project, we are looking into
:18:47. > :18:50.putting the key dams into streams, the strictures hold the water back
:18:51. > :18:55.for a day or two, it can have a huge effect in reducing the peak flows
:18:56. > :18:59.that we expose towns and cities to. Colin, thank you showing me around
:19:00. > :19:03.and good luck with the project. Weather extremes forces to make
:19:04. > :19:07.decisions about how protect ourselves, but what if the food we
:19:08. > :19:11.need to survivors under threat? Somebody has thought about that,
:19:12. > :19:15.David Shukman went to see them in the Arctic.
:19:16. > :19:18.In the punishing cold of an Arctic mountain in the remote Svalbard
:19:19. > :19:23.island is a doorway to what is meant to be the safest place on earth.
:19:24. > :19:28.Scientists are on their way, approaching through this isolated
:19:29. > :19:33.and hostile to rain. I am with them as they carry a precious cargo of
:19:34. > :19:39.seeds to be kept out of the way of whatever climate change might bring.
:19:40. > :19:44.How often do you get these deliveries? Three times a year. The
:19:45. > :19:49.box of seeds is about to go through the first line of security. There
:19:50. > :19:53.are half a dozen in all. I have just condemned the access tunnel which
:19:54. > :19:58.cuts into the mountain here. This place is 130 metres above sea level
:19:59. > :20:02.because, if the worst happens and global warming melts all of the
:20:03. > :20:11.polar ice caps, this project will still be safe. The last barrier to
:20:12. > :20:16.the store itself. Inside here, it is -18 Celsius. The rows of shelves are
:20:17. > :20:20.filling up with seeds from all over the world. There are samples of
:20:21. > :20:27.nearly half of the most important food crops, brought here just in
:20:28. > :20:32.case. So in these Ramon 's mountains, this place is meant to be
:20:33. > :20:37.a safeguard against Apocalypse, an insurance policy for a warming
:20:38. > :20:43.world. And now from the top of the planet to the bottom, Antarctica.
:20:44. > :20:46.BBC meteorologist Peter Gibbs worked there in 1980 at a British research
:20:47. > :20:50.station which discovered the hole in the ozone layer. A few months ago,
:20:51. > :20:54.he returned. I want to show you what a huge
:20:55. > :20:59.effect this great big white reflective surface has on the sky
:21:00. > :21:02.above. Notice how the clouds are looking really, really white, it is
:21:03. > :21:07.all the lights bouncing back and forth between the snow surface and
:21:08. > :21:12.the clouds, it is called ice blink. Look at the sky over the open sea,
:21:13. > :21:16.look at how much darker it is. The light coming in from the cloud is
:21:17. > :21:21.being absorbed by the dark sea surface, which is called a water
:21:22. > :21:24.sky. This is something used by Mariners before the days of
:21:25. > :21:29.satellites and helicopters if they were stuck in ice, they could see
:21:30. > :21:35.dark sky beyond and knew there was open water so they could try to work
:21:36. > :21:39.their way towards that. The surgery is on the right, we are
:21:40. > :21:44.moving to the main dining room and lounge area.
:21:45. > :21:48.It is mid-morning, everybody ravenously hungry as they come in
:21:49. > :21:50.from working outside. Grabbing a bit of grub. Then back to
:21:51. > :21:55.it. A big, deep rest, we are going
:21:56. > :21:58.outside through these heavy airlock to type doors. Hello, thanks very
:21:59. > :22:19.much. Through another one of these big,
:22:20. > :22:27.heavy doors, now we will go upstairs to the best view here. It is the Met
:22:28. > :22:37.Office observation deck. We get a panoramic view of the ice shelf.
:22:38. > :22:44.Today it is cloud covered. Finally, in one corner, the machine that
:22:45. > :22:48.discovered the ozone hole. And that was here when I was here over 30
:22:49. > :22:54.years ago. Finally from Antarctica, a very
:22:55. > :22:57.special sky view as the ice station is illuminated by the Aurora
:22:58. > :23:03.australis, or Southern lights. It was their northern hemisphere
:23:04. > :23:06.cousins, the aurora borealis, or Northern lights, putting on a
:23:07. > :23:10.spectacular show over Britain in March.
:23:11. > :23:16.Yes, when you are snowed under, this is the first thing you want to do! A
:23:17. > :23:20.craze of snow swimming hits the USA during the January blizzard.
:23:21. > :23:27.But trust an animal to steal the show. A giant panda at the National
:23:28. > :23:33.zoo in Washington, DC in pressed with his views you stick backstroke.
:23:34. > :23:36.We are back on the boat in York, a city which has had a difficult
:23:37. > :23:40.winter because of the flooding but is gearing up for the summer season.
:23:41. > :23:51.Millions come to visit from all over the world. Lynn from York Boat Tours
:23:52. > :23:56.joins me now. Most attractions are open from now until the end of
:23:57. > :24:01.November. Have a great summer. That is it from Weather World. We
:24:02. > :24:02.will be back in the summer but, until then, keep checking the
:24:03. > :24:13.forecast.