14/04/2017 Weather World


14/04/2017

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This time on Weather World we are in Northern Ireland airside at Belfast

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International Airport. We are going behind the scenes to find out what

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it takes to keep these planes flying and you and I safe, whatever the

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weather. Also on Weather World, devastation

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and deadly floods in south America. But some dramatic escapes too after

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months of heavy rain leave towns under water. And mud. As landslides

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kill hundreds. Weather bomb, the storm so strong they hold a unique

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place in weather science. And have taken California from drought to

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deluge with the ground giving way. And extreme heat, wild fires as

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parts of Australia endure their hottest summer.

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Plus, you have some history there. Taking the temperature, I will be

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opening the archives of one of the world's longest running weather

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observations and watching how it is still being done today. I will be

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taking a trip back to my own family history and aviation's past to see

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how some of today's technology was born.

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Welcome to Weather Worm at Belfast International Airport.

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-- weather World. 13 miles north-west of the city of Belfast

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this site was first established as a military base in the First World

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War. Since then, it's grown to become the busiest airport in

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Northern Ireland with over five million passengers travelling

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through it last year. The airport serves other UK and European

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destinations, plus there are flights to the USA.

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Weather and airports, so much can go wrong, can't it? It's an interesting

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relationship, thunder storms, fog, wind, snow, someone that knows all

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about those weather challenge is Michael, the general manager of air

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traffic control here. Hello, Michael. Hi. Is there a day when you

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are not thinking about the weather? No, every day, every day controllers

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come into work they're obviously thinking about the weather. The

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surface wind is very important in terms of deciding what's the

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direction of runway for take-off and landing. Interested in the cloud,

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the type of precipitation. We are interested in knowing all we need

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to. There is something specific about the airport here at Belfast

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which is about the weather and increases your flexibility. Yeah, we

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are one of the only remaining UK airports that still operates across

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runway. It faces east-west. We have a cross runway which sits at right

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angles, from the main runway. It's orientated more or less north-south.

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During the autumn when we get low pressures coming across the conflict

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we get strong southerly gales and a pilot's preference is is to land

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into wind, when the cross wind gets roughly around 30 knots, the pilots

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will opt to take the other runway for a safer approach and take-off.

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Weather is so important and Sarah's in the control tower now to take a

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look at how they get the very latest weather information here.

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This is the main weather system used here in the air traffic control

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centre. All the numbers and figures on the screen correspondent to

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continuous weather data that's collected. We record things like

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wind direction and speed, visibility, any significant weather

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around as well as importantly cloud amounts and heights too. Every half

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an hour a report is issued. That will help pilots make operational

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decisions about whether it is safe to land or whether they might need

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to divert to another airport. When the weather gets rough, the landings

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get tough. This plane struggles to maintain a steady approach to

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Manchester Airport in February, in the UK's fourth named storm of the

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season. Winds of up to 100mph hit the UK as Storm Doris blows in. As

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you see the foam hitting me from the sea that it definitely has

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materialised, gusts here are so powerful I can't even face in the

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direction of the wind is coming from.

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As reporters tried to remain upright, some trees failed. A lucky

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escape here for a driving instructor.

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But the storm did claim the life of a woman hit by falling debris and it

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wasn't just the wind doing the damage. There was heavy snow too

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here in Scotland. Storm Doris was an area of low pressure that underwent

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explosive genesis so strengthening quickly. Storms like this have

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become known as weather bombs. Life-threatening storm... This was

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another. A major snow storm hits the north-east USA in March bringing to

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an abrupt end what had been a mild start to the year. And for the first

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time in 33 years in New York, March was colder than February. There is

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cold and there is frozen solid. This house became encased in ice

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after strong winds blew water from lake Ontario over it that froze.

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Amazingly when the ice melted these pictures show the house emerging

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virtually unscathed. Europe's coldest winter month was

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January. With the unusual sight of snow on Greek island beaches. But

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the bitterly cold weather brought fresh misery for migrants at camps

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such as these in the Balkans. Then disaster in Italy. A mountain hotel

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buried by an avalanche, 29 people are killed but amazingly, some

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survive, rescued more than two days later. Oh my God!

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Tornado season in the USA peaks in spring but this is February in

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Louisiana. And New Olleans is hit with its strongest tornado on record

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but worst came even earlier. A January outbreak of tornado sweeps

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through south-eastern states leaving total devastation and 20 dead. More

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than died in tornados in the USA in the whole of last year.

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It's a beautiful day here at Belfast International Airport today but

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visibility is not always this good. In fact, the airport can be prone to

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seeing dense fog. Michael is going to join me now and can you explain

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just how do you land a plane when you can't see the runway? Certainly.

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We have an instrument landing system at the airport, part of is system is

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the glide path t sends a signal to the pilot and tells him if he is too

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high or too low as he makes the approach. We have another signal at

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the other end of the runway, the localiser, and it tells the pilot if

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he is left or right of centre line. The combination of the two, left

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right, up, down, safety guides the aircraft to land. Wonderful. We have

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had a look at what it looks like from the ground, I would love to see

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is how this instrument landing system works from up in the skies.

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Shall we take a look? Absolutely, let's go.

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Michael, we are up in the air. Can you explain to us a little about how

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this instrument landing system, the ILS works from the pilot's

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perspective up here? Absolutely. You can see the pilot gets the distance

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from touchdown. It's displayed at all times in the cockpit. So he

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knows how far he is from touchdown. You can see from the ILS signal at

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the moment the needle is to the left. That means the aircraft needs

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to fly left to get on track. I suppose in poor visibility

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conditions, in thick fog or blowing snow the pilot would rely upon this

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instrument? Absolutely. And the system at alter Grove allows the

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aircraft to auto land in those sort of conditions. We took to the skies

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thanks to airambulance Northern Ireland, but every commercial

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airline has an instrument landing system on board, so, no matter where

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in the world you make your landing, the guidance given to your pilot

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will be exactly the same. It takes an awful lot of power to power the

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ILS, all this kit, and also an entire airport but you might be

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surprised to hear where that power comes from. Let's head down to Nick

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on the ground to explain more. In fact, Sarah, Belfast Article

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Airport requires 1. 8 megawatts of electricity every day. And they get

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it right here, right next to the airport from tens of thousands of

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solar panels and on a sunny day this gives the aerp all the power it

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needs. Over here f you listen carefully, that whiny sound is the

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power being made, because even though it's cloudy there is still

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solar energy coming through converted through this inverter.

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Alan is the operations manager here at the airport. How important is

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this farm, and has it become to the airport? It's been a great success

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for us. The first nine months it produced 27% of the energy that we

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use on airport. It still is producing on a day like this, on a

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really good day absolutely everything on airport from radars to

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instrument landing systems, security systems, baggage systems, everything

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on airport is running on it. It is still producing excess for the grid.

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We can see what it's been doing for the airport today through this

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display unit here. The sun has come out occasionally today. Yes, this

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shows the last 24 hours of production with it. Last night

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around sundown it was still producing, then it dropped off

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through the night period. From dawn, it's gone up. We had a rainy period

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here this morning. It still is producing 250, 500 kilowatts. At

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peak time when the sun has come out it's producing 1500. So it's working

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very well. Even for Northern Ireland. I wish you many more blue

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sky days. Thank you very much. BBC weather watchers know cloudy

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days have their pluses too. And they just got a whole lot more

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interesting thanks to the release in March of an updated cloud at lass

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from the world meet logical organisation. It features newly

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classified cloud formations such as these as seen in Dorset.

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And these dramatic undulating clouds pictured here in the Peak District.

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Still to come on Weather World: Michael, you have some history

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there. Temperature tradition, more than 200 years of weather observing

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in Ireland. I will go back to the beginning and see how it is still

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being done today. We have had a look at modern

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aviation here at Belfast International Airport. But now I am

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stepping back in time to learn a little bit more about the history

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and the relationship between aviation and the weather. I have a

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personal reason for being here today. We will look at that later

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on. For now, let's head inside and meet our guide Ernie from the Ulster

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Aviation Society. Hi there, Ernie. Hi, Sarah, it's a pleasure to

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welcome you. Before the introduction of satellite and radar data,

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aircraft played a vital role in forecasting. Can you tell us more

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about that. Yes, indeed, what it involved was the aircraft of the

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weather flights going out over the Atlantic primarily from where most

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of our weather systems come, and taking a range of observations and

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different altitudes, observations of temperature, humidity, pressure and

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so on. It would have involved in some cases flights of up to eight or

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nine hours in length. Every so often the data that was being collected

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would be signalled back to Aldergrove. And from Aldergrove it

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would be sent to the fraing office. Why don't I interviews you to

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Malcolm, a colleague who was a Met observer on the weather squadron at

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Aldergrove in the post-war period. That would be fantastic.

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Malcolm, you were Met Observer on those weather flights. What was it

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like? A very interesting period in my life doing National Service in

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the force. We initially had very old aircraft, the Halifax, we used to be

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directed by the weather forecasts, we would fly for a day into weather

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worst weather wasn't find out what was really happening. As we tended

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to fly the majority of the flights fairly low down it could be very

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bumpy, very wet at the front because the aircraft used to leak a bit,

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being old. You could have lightning and it was a very difficult exercise

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for pilots and navigators to get there and back. At the poor radio

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waves and everything we would often be a bit of truck. It was arduous

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for the whole crew. Bernie, I mentioned earlier that I had a

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personal link to this place. My grandfather was an aeronautical

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engineer in Northern Ireland for many years. Can you tell me more

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about that? I really wanted to show you this aircraft, the short Sherpa,

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a unique aircraft. It was built in 1953 to test the properties of a

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novel type of wing your grandfather designed. The revolutionary new

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aircraft goes for its trials. The chief designer, David Keith Lucas,

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planned the Sherpa on his drawing board and no test pilot Tom Brook

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Smith looks set to continue. We are delighted it is part of the

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Ulster aviation collection because it is a unique research aircraft and

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your grandfather was responsible for that.

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Thank you so much for showing me this little bit of my family

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history. For now we will be leaving these

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historic aircraft, later we're heading back to Belfast

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International Airport for more on modern day aviation.

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Now to events in southern hemisphere summer and this from Peru. If ever

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you need proof of the force of flood water it is here. Look how the

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driver of this truck manages to get out just it is swept away.

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And again as this hotel collapses into a flooded river. Dozens of

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people had died in Peru since the start of the year. Here is another

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lucky escape as a mudslide churns up the debris of what was once

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someone's home, a woman emerges. Slowly she is able to find her feet

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and step to safety. The rain has been blamed on an unusually warm sea

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water off the coast of Peru, but not just Peru has suffered.

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Disaster in Colombia, torrential rains is a mudslide into town,

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submerging homes, businesses and people. The death toll reaches into

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the hundreds. Some in the area have blamed climate change for the

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extreme rain, others say deforestation means are more likely.

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Further south in Chile in January, drought, he took, strong winds and

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then fire. This town was destroyed by wildfires said to be the worst in

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the modern history of the country. Thousands of homes are burned to the

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ground. Summer fires also broke out in Australia, nearly 100 at one

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stage in February in New South Wales as record high temperatures produce

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catastrophic fire danger. In March the weather took a dramatic

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turn as Cyclone Debbie hit Queens land and then New South Wales.

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Floods follow and after its hottest summer, Sydney has its wettest

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margin 20 years. Viewed from helicopter, something

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quite astonishing is unfolding California in February. Car

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swallowing sinkholes are appearing. There goes another. It is not just

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cars disappearing, the ground is literally giving way as the state

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undergoes a remarkable transformation from drought with a

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succession of storms and weather bombs bringing flooding rain.

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There is so much water that the overflow from this town is needed

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for the first time in 50 years but it fails, leading to evacuation with

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fears of unrestrained floodwater being sent downstream.

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In a world of changing climate and weather, some things change very

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little. Like this weather ritual which has been happening for over

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200 years. At 9am every day, Shane Kelly takes

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weather observations at the Armagh Observatory 40 miles south-west of

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Belfast. His work and that of those before him has made this one of the

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longest-running series of manual weather observations in the world.

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Shane, you have been doing this for 18 years and the temperature record

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goes back over 200 years. Do you feel the weight of responsibility of

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keeping this going? It has been unbroken for 200 years, I don't want

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to be the one who breaks that are bad becomes infamous. It is a unique

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empirical record, it is a very useful record in research, schools,

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education for the general public. Lots of weather stations are

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automated, what is the benefit of having you doing this every day? We

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had an automatic weather stations several years back, and experimental

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one. It broke down, sometimes you lost records. We did not lose any on

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the manual side. On the automatic station you were sometimes recording

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wind speeds of 417 mph, you can see how an automatic station can get it

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wrong. Do you think of the day when this might become automatic and you

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will not be required to do this any more? I think it will become

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automatic but I think the manual station will run side by side as

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long as there is a will for people to get up in the morning and take

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readings and do it every morning and keep the unbroken record.

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These are those first records, safely stored at the observatory.

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Its director Michael Burton is about to show me how it all began.

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You have some history? I certainly have, these are the first reading

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software that the Armagh Observatory. Let's look at that

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first one. We have the logbook and we have this page at the top, these

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were the very first measurements made. It has held up quite well?

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Indeed. What is it telling us? The date, the first measurement is the

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27th of December 17 94. We are measuring the temperature inside and

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outside, two thermometers, one inside the observatory and one

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outside in the grounds, and the barometer, the air pressure. Things

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get more detailed over time? Notes are made about significant weather

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event. If we can call the 19th-century the more recent past,

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what happened there? 1839, the time of Bromley Robertson, the director

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here for 59 years. He is recording notes, the comment says a tremendous

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gale in the night. There was a fantastic storm that night, it got

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Robertson thinking about how one quantifies the strength of the wind

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and a few years later he came up with the design of what we call the

:20:23.:20:27.

anemometer, which is now use the world over to measure the wind

:20:28.:20:32.

speed. One of his first models this year? On the roof of the observatory

:20:33.:20:36.

building, you can go and see it. I have an amateur weather station on

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my back garden and it has this on it, and to think it all started here

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in Armagh? This is the cap anemometer, it comes from 1870 but

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the very basic design is how we measure wind speed the world over.

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It say something about design that it has

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lasted the test of time? A simple design, four club spinning in the

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wind, you can measure the wind speed and that is how we know wind speeds

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around the world. It has been fascinating seeing the weather

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history at the Armagh Observatory, thank you for showing us around.

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We are back at Belfast International Airport, so far we have looks at how

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weather is pivotal to operations here and had seen some of the

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systems in place to deal with changeable weather conditions. I

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will put some about into practice and with the help of Michael we will

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use the traffic control simulator to try to safely land a plane. Imagine

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it is a foggy day at Belfast, we have two inbound easyJets, one to

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the north and one to the south, we will factor them and establish them

:21:43.:21:47.

at ten miles, once they are safely established under the instrument

:21:48.:21:50.

landing system we can transfer and we -- can pretend we are

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transferring them to the tower. Easy for 64, descent altitude 3000 feet.

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We record the level on the strip and we watch the radar. You can see the

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aircraft is starting to descend. It looks like this aircraft has

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safely intercepted the instrument landing system and it is on the

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approach to the runway? The aircraft is now approaching two miles from

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touchdown, he has been safely established. It is probably on a

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full auto land because it would be in fog and the pilots will be

:22:35.:22:38.

letting the aircraft land. That was really well done as a first attempt

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at vectoring and aircraft. It descended at nine miles, that is

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what we expected. Weldon, a very good first attempt. My first

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aircraft, safely landed. Fantastic. Now from a busy skies to

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roads, and these iconic London cabs are far from where you would

:22:59.:23:03.

normally expect to see them. This is the Arctic Circle, they are being

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tested as they get a 21st-century makeover with a virtually silent

:23:08.:23:11.

electric engine cutting emissions. It has been awhile since London has

:23:12.:23:16.

seen snow like this but the manufacturers hope to sell the cabs

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in other polluted cities like Moscow, which gets a bit colder in

:23:20.:23:25.

winter. Finally, we have had automobiles,

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planes and now trains. This is what happens when you are waiting at a

:23:32.:23:34.

station after a snowstorm but the first train is nonstop. In March,

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New York commuters get a second helping of snow, but this one was

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not in the forecast! That is it for Weather World this

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time from Northern Ireland. We will be back later in the year.

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Until then, keep checking the forecast.

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Let's look at that first reading. Where did I put it?! We have lost

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the first reading from 1794. From now onwards the first readings will

:24:05.:24:11.

be from 1795. What is going on with my hair? What is it doing? She is so

:24:12.:24:15.

polite, isn't she?!

:24:16.:24:19.

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