22/12/2017 Weather World

The team looks back at the big

meteorological events of 2017

and things are not

quite as they seem.

This time, we have come to a winter

wonderland.

Or have we? Look very

closely in the next half-hour,

because all is not as it seems.

So...

Let it snow, let it snow, let

it snow. Welcome to Weather World!

Also on the programme, 2017's the

storms. -- biggest. Tropical

deluges, floods that carry a house

and everything in it. Stay from the

storm, near impossible escapes. --

safe. And even record rain cannot

stop another wildfire crisis in

California.

Humber, west or

south-west, five or six...

Plus, we

celebrate 150 years of the shipping

forecast. Its distinctive tones

loved by sailors and landlubbers

alike.

And weather, not as we know

it. I will be taking a deeper look

into space weather and the impact it

can have here on earth.

This time on the Weather World, we

are having some fun. We have come to

a company in Gloucestershire, Snow

Business, which the 35 years has

been making real and fake snow on

demand.

It is mostly for film and

television. They are the biggest

winter effects company in the world.

Some of their work includes the

James Bond films and Star Wars.

Later I will be looking at the

materials they use to make this

note.

I am often meet Darcy, the

owner, and he is going to show me

how you create a wintry scene.

We've

got a fairly green scene now, but we

are going to transform it into

something more white and wintry. I

can't wait to see what it will look

like stop power we going do this?

We

have a brand-new machine, we have

some specially torn paper which

locks together, we spray it with

water so it sticks to anything it

lands on. We can transform this into

a winter scene.

Let's get started,

then.

MUSIC.

This looks amazing. It is as if we

have stepped in to Narnia. How do

you create the illusion of falling

snow?

For that, we have a special

machine, which mixes without to

create snowflakes.

Wow! I feel like

I am in a snowstorm in Lapland. So,

creating this kind of snow is a

really big isn't as. In fact, you

other world leaders in winter

effects. How you get into this?

Purely by chance. I worked for a

company which made paper and a film

company came along wanting a lovely,

biodegradable snow. And they got us

to make paper snow. It turned out

quite well.

So, this is artificial

snow. And a little bit later on we

are going to see a look at how they

also make real snow here as well.

This is real snow. But there is

still something unusual here. Our

weather review of the year begins in

January on Greek island beaches.

Rarely does Arctic weather on this

scale reach so far deep into Europe.

And the bitter temperatures brought

fears for migrants, at camps such as

this one in Serbia, with calls for

them to be moved to warmer

conditions. Then disaster in Italy.

29 people killed in the deadliest

avalanche year in a century.

Amazingly, some survived. Rescued

more than two days later. February

in the UK, and storm Doris blows in,

with high winds and some lucky

escapes. And here is another

remarkable escape. This improved, as

a mudslide churns up the debris of

what was once somebody's home, a

woman emerges. Slowly she is able to

scramble her way to help. But the

flooding here did claim the lives of

about 100 people in the first few

months of the year. Disaster in

Colombia in April. Torrential rain

sends a mudslide into the town of

Mocoa. More than 250 died here. In

Chile in January, a different

problem. Drought, heat, strong

winds, then fire. This was the turn

of Santa Olga, destroyed by

wildfires, said to be the worst in

the country's modern history. Severe

drought hit Africa. This was

Somalia, where disaster was declared

in February. Millions across east

Africa started the year facing

starvation and famine. In

California, after years of drought,

a remarkable transformation took

place. Flooding rain from a

succession of winter storms all but

obliterated the drought. So much

water so quickly that car swallowing

sinkholes appeared. Any hope that

the soaking start to the year would

offer long-term relief went up in

flames, as we will see later in the

programme.

We often showed pictures of the

aurora borealis, or the Northern

light. This is the southern

hemisphere equivalent, the aurora

australis, putting on a spectacular

display of New Zealand in May. --

above. When and where we see the

light depends on the behaviour of

the sun, and trying to predict what

the sun will be has created an

emerging area of science, space

weather. Matt Taylor has been

finding out. Imagine a few hours

without traffic lights or your

smartphone. Sounds appealing,

doesn't it? Add to that trains,

flights, your weekly shop, even

money. And not just flowers.

Potentially days, weeks or even

months. It could become a reality.

It is all down to the impact that

space weather could have on things

like this. Satellites shown here at

the science Museum in London. To the

purists, space weather is not

strictly meteorology, but it is

driven by the same thing, and that

is the sun. In this case it is all

about coronal mass ejections and

solar flares. To tell us about those

I am joined by Professor Tim Aubry,

from the Imperial College London.

Professor, tell us more about what

solar flares and coronal mass

ejection is our?

Most of us think of

the sun is a fairly boring yellow

globe in the sky. But as we study at

more we realise it is a dynamic

objects. Solar flares are enormous

releases of energy from the sun.

They accelerate particles to high

energies which can arrive at the and

damage satellites, and they also

released enormous amount of energy

and coronal mass ejection is. This

matter floods out through the solar

system and can arrive at the and

impact us on.

You are the head of a

mission investigating the sun?

It is

called Solar orbit, being built by

the ESA at the moment. We will be

close -- be going closer to the sun

than ever before, by seven Mercury.

Will be measuring what comes off the

summer and travels past a spacecraft

on its way towards the out.

And it

is the magnetic deals which are

important when it comes to impact on

outcome isn't it?

Yes. At Imperial

College London building the incident

which will measure those magnetic

fields in space, and when those

fields arrive at the out and

interact with the was Mac magnetic

yield, and it is those interactions

which dried things like the aurora

and geomagnetic storms.

Will this

help is ultimately for car space

weather?

Solar orbit to itself not a

space weather mission but it is

designed to study the fundamental

physics of what is going on in the

sun and into planetary space and by

understanding that that we hope to

do better space weather forecasting

in the future.

Thank you. We will

find out later in the programme a

bit more about forecasting space

weather and the impact it can have

here on earth.

At the start of the programme I

said, look very closely this time on

Whether World, because all is not as

it seems. It might look like I have

entered an icy cave, but there isn't

any ice in here. And none of this is

real. It is another fake wintry

environment. Paul is here to tell us

how they made this. What materials

have you used?

We use a lot of

different materials here. Plastic,

paraffin wax, recycled packaging

material, litter as well. With LED

lighting we can bring it all

together and give you the fact that

you see here.

The materials that are

used to make something look wintry

in film and television, they have

evolved over time, haven't they?

In

the very early days of black and

white film they didn't have any

other materials at all. They had to

wait for it to snow. That was

time-consuming, and it was also

dangerous. Three members died from

the cold while they were filming.

That wasn't good. Later they baronet

with different materials. Moral and

Hardy used painted cornflakes, which

was effective. Either time we got to

with them was -- Wizard of Oz, they

were using spaces. Obviously that is

really bad, but they didn't know it

was dangerous at the time.

You are

things which I did for the

environment and good for people.

What are the good materials going

forward?

We are developing materials

like this, which is a glitter, which

is made from cellulose. So within a

couple of weeks or so that will

biodegrade. Now, normal glitter,

which has been banned in cosmetic

use by the government, would just

wash off your body when you come

back from your festival, down the

drain and out to see where it gets

eaten by plankton and fish and

unfortunately by us again. This has

-- this is gone in a week or two.

It

has the texture of icing sugar but

you can see the glitter. What else

are you using?

We are using things

like this, which is part of frost.

This is pure cellulose. You could

eat it if you wanted to, though it

wouldn't taste nice. Once that

washes into the soil that completely

biodegrade. It is no more harmful to

the environment then leaves.

Of

course, the least harmful thing to

the environment is real snow. We

haven't had much of that yet, but it

can be made on demand, and will be

finding out about that later on.

Now, from snow to extreme heat. Our

weather review of the year continues

with a scorching summer in southern

Europe. Wildfires that it houses

being evacuated from campsites in

France, spending the night on

beaches near St Tropez. Portugal in

June, and a catastrophic forest fire

kills more than 50 people. It is the

country's worst disaster for more

than a quarter of a century. When a

flashlight rages through a major

city, disaster strikes. In August, a

massive downpour sends muddy water

surging through the streets of

Sierra Leone in West Africa. And

then a mountainside collapses in an

avalanche of mud, burying whole

communities as they slept. Hundreds

of people killed, thousands losing

their homes.

Now, more snow, and your BBC Weather

Watcher pictures of the wintry

weather which swept across the UK in

early December. The most widespread

December snow since 2010. You can

become a BBC Weather Watcher by

signing up at the BBC website.

Still to come on Weather World, we

had to the Alps to discover how

sometimes, the old ways are still

the best, especially when it comes

to predicting an avalanche.

This time on Weather World, Sarah

and I are looking at how they make

so for the film intelligent

industry. We have seen fake snow,

the material they use, but now this

is real snow. This may look like

something which came from the

clouds, but actually, it came from

this metal box.

Darcy, explain to me how we are

about to make real some inside this

box, then?

The box is a cryogenic

chamber. Water, compressed air, and

the water is smashed into tiny, tiny

pieces. We also fire liquid

nitrogen. So the smashed water is

like a cloud inside a box, with

liquid nitrogen, freezing it down to

minus 20. So it falls like snow

inside the box.

Wonderful. Let's

close these doors and get started.

So this has been turning away for

about 90 minutes now. Shall we crank

open the doors and have a look at

the snow inside? Wow, check this

out! Look at that snow. I can tell

you, that is soft and fluffy and

freezing cold. It feels just like

real snow.

Is it the same? It's

exactly the same as real snow.

Once

you've made it all how do you

transported to the film set?

We

initially shovel it into a roughage

rated truck and reset the tablature

at the perfect Abbey Church you keep

it in top condition. -- we set the

temperature.

The people want to use

real or fake snow?

They want to use

real but fake snow is faster. You

can lie in this all day and you

won't get an ammonia. -- pneumonia.

Thank you so much for showing us how

this is no is manufactured here. For

now, where is Nick? Heavy snow in

February led to avalanches in

Afghanistan and the French Alps,

both resulting in several

fatalities. Sarah travelled to

Austria where heavy snow has meant

predicting avalanches is especially

important.

Every year hundreds and thousands of

people descend here to the Alps

looking for someone to fund, but for

the thrill seekers and especially

those who like to go off path,

avalanches are big threat. The main

methods of detection date back

decades and is not a computer in

sight.

I put the shovel on the top

and I pound like 30 times with

different intensity.

Now, here we can see the first

crack. After the 27th time of

pounding...

You are saying it took

quite a few times for you to pound

this and get this crack? If it had

been fewer times you would have

said, don't ski here?

Yes.

They are

concerned about two key danger

patterns for avalanches. A weak

ground level layer and forecast

winds leaving fresh powder around.

But this team is a 1-piece skiers

are protected.

They have the

avalanche barriers, they have in the

morning there avalanche commission

who is opening the runs or

completely closing them if it's

unsafe.

Off piste skiers and

snowboarders are most at risk. There

are high-tech agents that can help

save anyone caught up in an

avalanche, but the low tech tools

keep people away from danger in the

first place.

Some of the biggest weather

headlines of 2017 came during a

record-breaking Atlantic hurricane

season. Texas, in August, where

Harvey becomes the first major

hurricane to hit the USA in nearly

12 years. Scientists have estimated

Harvey dropped 127 billion tons of

water, no other tropical cyclone has

produced so much rain in the USA.

Hurricane Irma is next, slamming

into the Caribbean.

It's getting

really intense now.

More than 100

people are known to have died as a

result of that. It is September and

there is another category five

hurricane in the Caribbean, Maria.

With ten consecutive hurricanes,

this was one of the costliest

Atlantic season is on record. August

and a typhoon slammed into China

with the same terrifying mix of

district winds and torrential rain

as a hurricane. The Pacific typhoon

season was much less to -- less

active than normal, but there were

still several powerful systems,

including this one in Vietnam in

November. But the cyclone's every

twist and turn his tract minute by

minute. Debbie G major went on for

months, causing the worst floods in

decades -- the deluge went on. And

eastern state in India is hit

hardest. In total millions of people

are forced from their homes and more

than 1000 are killed. This is what

is left behind after a flash flood

in Pakistan's most populous city,

Karachi. The monsoon rains give

much-needed water for crops they

always come with a human cost.

In September the weather in space

was as the Malta was as it was on

earth. So much so that it led to

radio blackouts. Nassar recorded the

biggest solar flare for a decade,

but why should a flair have such an

impact? -- NASA.

We went to Cambridge to get the

answer. Antarctica is a brilliant

place to observe space?

It is. It's

very radio quiet, so we can pick up

radio signals in the Antarctic which

we can't do elsewhere. We detect a

special radio waves and those

charged particles pose a risk of

damage to satellites. In fact they

are called killer electrons because

they've been known to kill

spacecraft in the past.

One of the

largest solar flare is ever to be

witnessed was an event named after

the British astronomer who observed

it in 1859. He sketched what he saw

on the sun, Telegraph systems went

haywire worldwide. Scientists have

estimated that something similar

today could cost billions or

trillions, given now increasing

reliance on satellite technology.

Colour-coded here, you can see the

radiation belts, the regions of high

energy charged particles, electrons,

that are trapped in the Earth's

magnetic field. The GPS satellites

fly pretty much through the heart of

this radiation belts, where the

radiation is most intense. Ideally

you want satellites to be stationed

in between the belts?

Is the gap

between inner and outer belt where

the radiation is lower, there are

periods where that region gets

filled with high energy charged

particles and that's a high risk

period. And that can have a big

impact on daily life here on Earth?

Well, if you think that we rely more

and more on our satellites for

mobile phones, for TV, for internet,

for all kinds of communications,

banking, that kind of stuff, it's

really important major part of our

life in the modern world.

So next

time you gazed skywards or pick up

your smartphone, just think how

seemingly small changes in the sun

could cause sudden and drastic

changes to the way you live your

life.

November marked 150 years of the

shipping forecast.

The shipping

forecast for the next 12 hours.

Produced by the Met Office on behalf

of the maritime and coastguard

agency, it's believed to be the

longest running forecast of its kind

in the world. That crucial forecast

data is produced daily here at the

Met Office.

There was just a feeling

that there was too much risk of loss

of life...

I was shown the first

weather charts from under 50 years

ago.

What they did rather cleverly

was basically put pins through the

paper, the kind of sea just about

this little pinpricks here that

meant they were also looking at the

same information in the same place.

You can see how they had a change

from these maps the very detailed

maps. It was known as the storm

warning service, but then was known

as a shipping forecast.

The shipping

forecast is not just for mariners

but it also listens to buy hundreds

of thousands of us every on Radio 4.

Occasional rain, good, occasionally

moderate...

That the flavour of the

bulletin which is all past four

times a day. At 5:20am it needs to

be exactly nine minutes long, so on

a calm day I can take my time in

describing the weather conditions

for the 31 different sea areas,

whereas on a stormy day I have to

speak much quicker in order to fit

all that information into the same

minute window.

Storm warnings in October as the

remnants of hurricane Ophelia hit

Ireland in the UK. Ophelia was the

easternmost major hurricane ever

recorded in the Atlantic. This roof

was ripped from the roof in Ireland.

The government here called the

situation national emergency. And

Ophelia had a stranger side to it,

turning the sky and eerie orange

because of Saharan dust swept up on

its path to the UK. But when it

comes to air pollution, this is just

about as bad as it gets. In

November, Delhi, and the smog so

thick and toxic it is set to produce

a text of equivalent to 50

cigarettes a day. In the USA, more

tropical rain and flooding and this

remarkable view Opera House being

swept along the river in New

Hampshire, of tropical storm Philip

heading -- to the east coast of the

US. But in California, fire, as

months of hot and dry weather

followed last week -- last winter's

record rain, creating wildfire

crisis. In December fires hit the

south near Los Angeles. The largest

burning an area the size of New

York. In the UK, Storm Caroline

arrived. Scotland bears the brunt

with winds of up to 90 kilometres

per hour, but cold air that follows

is felt across the UK, blanketing

large areas of snow. The most in

seven years. Not everyone is a fan

of snow. But if it is the very first

time you've seen it we can't help

but be excited, even if you are a

dog. Truffle, the Yorkshire cocker

spaniel puppy, trying to get to

grips with the white stuff. And

that's it for this time from our

Weather World Winter Wonderland.

The highlights from our previous

programmes, go to our website.

There's one thing I want to know

about fake and real snow. Which is

the best for a snowball fight?

Let's find out!

Bring it on!

OK.

They are quite hard!

Yours are harder!

Come on! You aren't even trying!

That's right in my ear!

I got you back! You deserved that

one.

Sorry, that must have hurt.