in over high ground. wintry showers gci’oss in over high ground. wintry showers across scotland and a in over high ground. wintry showers across scotland and a cold, brisk breeze here. for the far north of scotla nd breeze here. for the far north of scotland and parts of northern ireland, some clear spells overnight allowing a touch of frost. with the extra cloud further south, not quite as cold. saturday breezy, chile and dampfor as cold. saturday breezy, chile and damp for many. the areas of rain with sleet and he was no drifting northwards, fiddling away all the while. across the north of scotland, some sunshine, brightening up down towards the far south later. generally quite cloudy and cool. easter day looks dry from most. the odd shower toward the north. quite a lot of cloud but some spells of sunshine here and there. heavy rain in the south—west. strengthening winds and that is what is to come on easter monday. the area of low pressure bringing the frontal system northwards across the country and as the front runs into pretty cold air,

there is the potential for the front runs into pretty cold air, there is the potentialfor a the front runs into pretty cold air, there is the potential for a spell of snow. still some uncertainty about this, parts of mid—wales, quite a lot of snow. quite a lot for northern england, northern ireland, southern scotland. potential for disruption but as milder air pushes him from the south it is likely to be mainly wet weather here. temperatures in the far south—west up temperatures in the far south—west up to ii celsius. with the risk of snow, there could be travel disruption on easter monday, so stay tuned to the forecast. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. tighter rules on police bail have led to thousands of suspects in violent and sexual offences being released without conditions. new regulations on pre—charge bail came into effect in england and wales last year. ambassadors from countries that have removed russian officials have been arriving at the russian

foreign ministry — it's understood moscow plans to expel at least 150 envoys in retaliation. senior staff at some academy trusts have been accused of taking "unjustifiably" high salaries — mps say the academies in england are using public money that could be better spent on children's education. a group of labour mps has urged jeremy corbyn to suspend former disputes panel chair christine shawcroft from the party's national executive committee, as the row over anti—semitism continues. now on bbc news — weather world. the team discover how meteorology has helped to shape the royal air force, which is celebrating 100 years since its formation. this time on weather world we're marking 100 years

of the royal air force. and where better than here at raf brize norton? nick and i have been finding out about high ground operations work with air traffic control in times of severe weather to keep this crucial airbase operational. and i'll be at raf matham in norfolk sharing some of my experiences of being an operational forecaster at an raf base. also, crippling cold, uk and much of europe falls victim to the beast from the east. freak freeze... the flood that turned to ice. how a weather disaster can strike as if from nowhere. the storms that can sweep you off your feet. but some people try to carry on regardless! this year marks the centenary

of the raf, we've come to its largest station at raf brize norton in 0xfordshire, home to almost 6000 service personnel. the aircraft based here support british military operations around the globe, it's surprisingly busy with frequent landings, departures and training manoeuvres. a lot of what happens in a military airport like this is very different from a commercial airport but some things are the same. air traffic control is the hub of all activity and that is where sarah is now. i'm here with simon who is in charge of all air traffic control here and tell me, why is it so important brize norton stays open all year round? we are home to the raf strategic and tactical air transport fleet.

we're also the gateway to operations across the world. that's to say delivering, whether it's troops, cargo or disaster relief as we saw at the end of 2017 in the caribbean. meteorology and aviation will always be intrinsically linked, how do you get your weather information here? we're very lucky in the fact that we have our own met office, they pass the weather information across to here in traffic control via fax, would you believe, this is translated into our local systems reference by controllers. you get this fax with coded weather information, and how is the weather looking out there today? it's looking pretty good out there at the moment, the met office are forecasting 30 kilometres with no weather phenomena, a cloud base of 2800 base and positive temperatures plus 11.

how important is it that at the operations you get a detailed weather forecast? it is vital that we pass accurate information on to pilots transiting through. it's notjust pilots that need to be prepared, but we all need to be ready for whatever the weather throws at us. bitterly cold weather over the past few days coming from siberia, the beast from the east as it's been called... are you ready for the beast from the east with weather predicted to be colder than the arctic? spring on hold, early march, a winter bite back brings much of the uk to a standstill in the coldest, snowiest weather since 2010. my god! in scotland, some traffic keeps moving... but only just. in wales, the snow blows into drifts

so deep they bury cars. cold siberian air with widespread snow puts britain in much of a freeze. producing the coldest march day on record. this is going to be tricky and i don't think i've got enough traction to pull the car through. what are you going to do? go home and have a cup of tea. that' the answer, isn't it? some railway lines were overwhelmed. this driver's eye view shows what, for now, is the end of the line. so what caused the so—called beast from the east? the answer can be found in the stratosphere, high above the arctic, where the normal flow of air weakened, allowing air to descend and warm by as much as 50 degrees. this is sudden stratospheric warming. but it also impacts the jet stream,

reversing it from its usual westerly to an easterly flow, resulting in bitterly cold air from siberia carrying across much of europe. few places escaped. in italy, rome gets its biggest snowfall in decades, covering the city's landmarks. cue a mass snowball fight in st peter's square next to the vatican, even priestsjoined in! but even before the beast from the east, winter in europe had produced some snowy surprises. this is moscow in february, after its heaviest one—day snowfall on record. 38 centimetres, more than half what the city would normally get in an entire month. in january, unusually heavy snowfall hits parts of africa too — this is morocco. the snow even reached the edge of the sahara desert in algeria. it does get cold here, but there is rarely enough moisture

for any precipitation! winter white—out in iran, as the capital tehran is blanketed with heavy snow in january, much welcome moisture here offering some brief drought relief. can you believe this is tallahassee, florida ? and we are getting snow...? no, we can't, but it is, and injanuary it's the first measurable snow here in nearly three decades. more familiar territory for a winter storm, the north—east usa, several of them in march and this one gave the city of boston its snowiest march day on record. this storm that struck at the start of the year was dubbed a bomb cyclone, hitting boston with notjust wind, not just snow, but a three foot flooding storm surge. then this. after the flood, the big freeze, and astonishing scenes as frozen floodwater entombs cars in ice.

back to the beast from the east. this video shows the huge effort at raf brize norton to keep the runway open in the face of prolonged snowfall, blowing around and drifting in the wind. as some commercial airports succumb to the severe weather, closing the crucial runway here is never an option. sergeant natasha watkins, you were here on duty during and before the beast from the east, when did you first hear it was coming? so, the met office that we have based here, gave us a warning on tuesday, the beast from the east was coming on the thursday. so we spent some time checking the manpower, checking the operational aircraft, which priority they would take, making sure our equipment was ready. kind of all the things that you plan for without it actually happening.

it must have been an amazing few days. it was, yeah. you're laughing about it, this was an experience. it was, incredible. why was it so valuable to your teams, going through that and dealing with all of that cold and snow? so, they carry out training prior to the start of every season and it's a dry run. you don't really get to use it in anger until something like the beast from the east comes in. do you actually like snow yourself? everybody says i'm a hot weather person, but i really like it. this is one of the ploughs that was operational. sarah is up in the cab. that's right. i've got prime position, and there is a fleet of eight of these vehicles here at brize norton. i'm with pete, one of the men involved in keeping the airfield open in all types of weather, and so, it's been quite a busy

winter for you? really busy this year. when the beast from the east affected us, we had these vehicles out for 56 hours, constantly, up and down the runway, maintaining it, keeping it open. you can control all the elements of the vehicle from the cab? yeah, this computer controls the snow plough at the front, the brushes in the middle, and the blowers at the back. shall we hop out and you can show me? great. we saw how it is controlled in the cab, talk me through the equipment down here on the ground, starting at the front. the plough at the front, the idea is it pushes the snow out all the way, in the direction of the wind, pushing it to the left of the right. pushing it to the left or the right. further down, what's the next? the brushes brush the snow, so what's left after the snow ploughs brush the snow away, there will be a layer of snow, the brushes break it up, they shoot it in the same direction as the snowplough, at the back, the blowers, it blows all the excess

liquid or slush away from the airfield again in the same direction. thank you so much for explaining all that. now, a little bit later we'll be talking to your traffic control to see how their teams work with this team to deal with the beast from the east. 20 years ago i began my weather career on an raf base and what it was like to forecast for an aircraft like the tornado. i've come here to raf marham to find out how the rules of meteorology have changed. i've come inside to the met office at raf marham, the forecasters are watching the weather, making the documents, much like they used to do when i started to weather forecast, much like i used to do when i started to weather forecast, it's all for people such as this, squadron leaderjim furness, who has 3000 hours of flying under his belt with the tornados. we were at cranwell at the same time. right from the start,

meteorology forms a big part of the flying training? it's a key, basic skill, every aviator learns during basic training. when we were back at cranwell in the day, the forecast was generally the same, delivered on acetate slides, whereas now, technology moving forward now it's delivered through computer but fundamentally it's still the same sort of forecast, delivering a concise, clear picture to aviators of what weather conditions they can expect during their training orflight. you have flown the tornado and lancaster, how has the situation changed as far as using the weather forecast? the lancaster is a precious aircraft, one of two flying in the world, and we need to make sure we don't expose it to any adverse weather conditions. it doesn't have equipment on board to help us actively read the weather in the way the tornado can, so we have to be very careful about the conditions we expose it to. i remember eyeballing the pilots,

there was always a bit more pressure to forecast for the lancaster. we'll come back to you later, we'll look at different ways the weather is being tackled, join us later in the programme, to see the novel ways the raf used to tackle fog, especially during the second world war. now some of your pictures. few places escape the snow which blanketed large parts of the british isles, the situation made worse, blowing into drifts by the bitterly cold easterly wind. but it wasn't just snow, there was also freezing rain. this is when supercooled raindrops freeze instantly to anything they touch — the result, a layer of glazed ice which makes for some of the most beautiful, but hazardous winter weather there is. you can become a bbc weather watcher by signing up online. still to come, fighting fog — how the raf cleared the air to keep flying.

plus, we look at how technology in the tornado has radically improved landing conditions in the raf. we are back at raf brize norton, and we saw earlier all the work that was done to keep this important military airport opened during the cold spell, the so—called beast from the east. how do they know whether the runway is safe to take off or land on? this is such an important piece of kit, it's cold a mu meter and corporal natalie adams is with me to tell me what it does. what does it do? it's designed to test the friction on the runway. we'll get the laptop readings. how does it work? we'll put the wheel down on the back... there it goes. and that's fed through wires into the vehicle through to the laptop. that's how we will get the readings. clearly nothing wrong

with the friction on the runway today, but we're going to give it a training run, let's get in and see it in action. time to put it through its paces, we're on a taxiway, sean is driving us, head off when you are ready. here we go. what is going to happen now? we're going to test the friction of the runway. we're currently getting up to 40mph as quickly as possible. we will get the correct readings. accurate readings. the wheel is down. yes, that's where we get the readings from. we're ready for a a0 miles an hour emergency stop, whenever you're ready... yes! i felt that, safely done. we have done the start, what are you looking for in terms of readings? we'll get readings, and 0.7 is a good reading, anything below that means the friction on the runway isn't

very good, and then we would have to look at why, is it ice, do we need to start de—icing? that's some weather science from here at the surface. now, sarah has some more from a long way up in the sky. you'll often hear meteorologists talking about the jet stream but what is it? how are they important? a jet stream is a fast—moving, narrow ribbon of air high up in the atmosphere, about six miles above our heads. jet streams are formed at the boundary of two air masses, so for instance in the north atlantic cold polar air meets milder subtropical air. jet stream typically flow from west to east, down to the easterly rotation of the earth and the resulting effect, jet streams can be thousands of miles long, and can travel at speeds of more than 200 miles an hour, so they have a dramatic affect on air travel, depending whether you are travelling with or against the jet stream,

flight times and fuel consumption can be dramatically affected. and what about the weather? well, jet streams don't always flow in a straight line, we see ripples and buckles in the streams and quite small—scale ripples can lead to rapidly deepening depressions and big meanders mean some areas can see successful weather systems, whereas other parts of the world and see quieter weather with a blocking area of high pressure. observing and predicting the behaviour of jet streams is the most vital tool for a weather forecaster. a strong jet stream drove some powerful atlantic weather systems into europe injanuary. the driver of this car braved a flooded seafront road in ireland as storm eleanor arrived with winds of up to 100 miles an hour. another storm roared across northern europe later in january,

literally blowing people off their feet in the netherlands. many were caught off—guard, despite the highest level of weather warning for wind. this roof was no match for some of the most powerful winds ever recorded here. the storm killed several people in the netherlands and germany. in the french capital, paris, weeks of heavy rain sent the river seine soaring again — it was the wettest december and january here in 50 years. mudslides surged through neighbourhoods in the usa — this is southern california injanuary. torrential rain poured on ground scorched and cleared of vegetation by the state's largest wildfire in history, the mud had nowhere to go and nothing to hold it back. more than 20 people were killed in the devastation that followed. tropical cyclones have continued to roam the pacific. in february, tonga is in the firing line of cyclone giza, the worst to hit the country since modern weather records began 60 years ago.

among the casualties and the widespread destruction, the more than century—old parliament building. in australia injanuary, it's near record summer heat that is making the headlines as temperatures in sydney top 47 celsius. and in south africa, unprecedented drought takes cape town closer to becoming the world's first major city to run out of water. every day without rain takes the 4 million people who live here closer to the day the taps run dry. brazil in february, and the eerie sight of a forest trail completely submerged by water. the flood subsided almost as quickly as it came but it produced scenes that look like they come from another world. newsreel: continuous lines of petrol burners lines of petrol

burners are a vital feature of fog investigation dispersal operations or in raf parlance, operation fido. how they tackled the weather elements in the raf has changed, and today we could never imagine this but during the second world war the problem of fog was met by this unusual solution, fido. the public should know that fido, in this war, has saved over 10,000 aircrew lives. fido has made it possible to carry out operations in base weather which would have stopped all flying in the past. first operational use of fido was in november 1943. .. when low—lying fog made it unsafe for aircraft to land, they would be diverted to fido—enabled air fields, gas filled lanes running alongside the base will be set ablaze, the heat burning away the fog, giving pilots clear sight of the runways. that system contained 500,000

gallons of petrol when full, costing thousands every time it was deployed. such costly methods would never be used these days. at the base we have an infra—red camera... as the squadron leader explains, aviation technology in planes such as the tornado has really moved on. tornado is designed as an all—weather capable aircraft and to help us fly at low altitude we have a terrain falling radar housed in the nose, and that will scan in front of the aircraft, reading the terrain, and combining with the autopilot it allows the aircraft to fly at low altitude at any height we desire in any weather imaginable. so, technology may have changed but we've got the same problems, landing, getting back to base, how do you deal with fog? a couple of ways, we can either use assistance from the ground, air—traffic control, a precision approach radar, where they will talk you back down, and we've also got

instrument landing system, which is common across multiple types of aircraft, the pilot follows steering commands, back down to the runway, the final option with this is when we combine radar, my skills as a radar operator from the back—seat, pilots and flying skills. if we can't see the ground or the runway by a set height, about 200ft, at that point we're going to go around and we're going to fly off to our diversion. squadron leader, thank you. it's going to be a dull and wet start to the day... it's notjust how we deal with the weather that has changed over the years but also how it looks on screens, computers and mobile phones. bbc weather's appearance has come a long way since the first television forecast more than 60 years ago. so, that's the picture this morning. watch out for ice first thing this morning, too... and in february, another new look was unveiled. simon hunt is our creative director — talk us through what viewers can

expect to see with new graphics. they will notice the map looks different, it's high—resolution, it's green, go in closer, and you can see high—resolution data for the weather. we have the ability to show a 3—d globe which the presenters can move around quite easily to create the editorial story they want to tell. we were looking beyond the clouds at the end ofjanuary, as parts of the world marvelled at an extremely rare celestial event, a super blue blood moon, "super" because it was a full moon, when the moon is at its closest to the earth, making it appear larger than usual — "blue" because of the second full moon of the month, that's where the phrase for a very infrequent event, once in a blue moon comes from, and "blood" when the moon's reddish colour during a total lunar eclipse. it's the first time these elements have combined since 1866.

not quite as rare but it's still six years since people have been able to do this, skate on amsterdam's frozen canals. and finally, another snowstorm in boston, usa, this is a man dressed as else from the disney film frozen, pushing a police truck. oh, just let it go! # the cold never bothered me anyway... that's it from us. you can find clips on the website. we will be back later in the year, until then, keep checking the forecast! lowestoft in suffolk, very grey skies but it is not like that everywhere. western scotland has been favoured for some sunshine and it will continue to be that the rest of this afternoon. through the rest of this afternoon. through the rest of the week and, it is that mixed

bag which continues, rain at times but some snow, especially on monday, asi but some snow, especially on monday, as i will show you. rather cool but in amongst all of that, as we have seen, some spells of sunshine. low pressure driving things at the moment, sitting down to the south—west, throwing lumps of cloud in our direction south—west, throwing lumps of cloud in ourdirection and south—west, throwing lumps of cloud in our direction and bringing some outbreaks of rain. so, some rain to come across good parts of southern england, as we go through the rest of this afternoon and into this evening. and then overnight, we'd push that rain a little bit further northwards into northern england, some of it will be quite heavy with some of it will be quite heavy with some sleet and snow mixed in over higher ground. for scotland and northern ireland some clear spells to ta ke northern ireland some clear spells to take us through the night, and temperatures here will dip low enough for a touch of frost. tomorrow our wet weather, which will have been in the south, starts to slide further north, some sleet and snow over higher ground. quite a strong breezes well so it will feel raw. some sunshine in northern ireland, and down towards the south, things drying up and perhaps

brightening up a little bit. sunday, not a bad bet, there will be a lot of cloud around but the best of the brightness in the north—east of england and north—east scotland while down to the south—west, our next frontal system coming in, thrown up by that area of low pressure, which could bring a simple blooms on easter monday. it will be sliding northwards into some relatively cold air, and that gives the potential for some snow. relatively cold air, and that gives the potentialfor some snow. still significant uncertainty about the forecast for easter monday, it looks most likely that parts of north wales and other northern areas will be most likely to see a spell of snow, potentially quite significant, potentially disruptive. the far north should be largely dry, and down to the south it will be rain which falls from the sky, because temperatures here will be that bit higher. so if you are travelling on easter monday, there is the risk of snow, easter monday, there is the risk of show, some easter monday, there is the risk of snow, some uncertainty about exactly

how much. most of it will be over higher ground. there could be some travel disruption, so if you are planning to travel on monday, stay tuned to our forecasts between now and then. this is bbc news. i'm carrie gracie. the headlines at 2pm. new bail rules are leading to thousands of crime suspects, some involving murder and rape, are being released without any conditions. america says moscow has no justification for its tit—for—tat expulsion of 60 diplomats as britain's ambassador seeks answer in moscow. the use of a chemical weapon on the streets of the united kingdom that has threatened the lives of a number of people in my country. we asked some questions of the russian state and we've still not received adequate answers. nearly a0 labour mps and peers call onjeremy corbyn to suspend a senior official at the centre of the latest row about anti—semitism.

personal details of 150 million users of a popular online fitness programme are compromised by a data security breach. also in the next hour. senior staff at some academy trusts are accused of taking