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tv   Weather World  BBC News  August 25, 2018 1:30pm-2:00pm BST

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hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: pope francis is in ireland, for the first papal visit in almost a0 years. the government has announced plans for women in england to be he has said he is ashamed at the catholic church posed by failure to address six abuse by clergy. the government has announced plans for women in england to be allowed to take the second of an early abortion pill at home. currently they have to take both at a clinic. after a british couple died at an egyptian hotel, holiday—makers have started to arrive back in the uk. tour operator, thomas cook, says the cause ofjohn and susan cooper's deaths remains unexplained. thousands of rohingya muslim refugees have taken part in a demonstration marking one year since their exodus from myanmar, following a military crackdown. the family of a british—iranian woman imprisoned in iran is waiting to hear if her temporary release from jail will be extended beyond three days. nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe is due to go back to prison tomorrow. rebecca jones is standing by with
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all the dues are 2pm. now on bbc news, weather world. the team examine extreme temperatures and their impact on the whisky and wine industries. this time on weather world, we are in north east scotland and we will be finding out how the weather affects one of this country's favourite exports. from field to bottle, whisky. we find out what is being done now to safeguard its future whatever the weather. and i'm at a vineyard in west sussex finding out how climate change and technology are shaping the glass of wine you drink at home. also, feeling the heat. the temperature hits new highs with a sweltering multi—continent heatwave. deadly wildfires and the race to escape as they spread at terrifying speed.
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and flash floods so ferocious they are hard to believe, we will bring you images from the world's biggest weather stories and storms. plus, out for the count. tracking puffins as they face up to climate change in a fight for survival. whisky, a core part of scotland's national identity, and it is a massive moneymaker as well. there are over 100 distilleries and last year exports hit a record high with 1.2 billion bottles going to an almost insatiable overseas market. and this is where it all begins with a crop of malting barley ready to be harvested and i'm going to do just that in that combine over
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there while sarah finds out how weather can make or break a crop like this. let's get this barley cut. i am joined by ian green, a farmer here in moray, and you watch the weather forecast in the a lot of details what would be your ideal conditions to produce the perfect crop to go on to make perfect whisky. the perfect weather for us to produce our barley would be moisture in the soil, nice daylight, long daylight and nice sunny days. we have had the sun but not the moisture. this year has been pretty memorable, particularly dry and hot, so how has the weather of this summer affected the quality of the crop? as you can see, the grain is not as full and plump as it should be so you're looking for a nice bold and bright sample of grain, so we have a nice colour
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because of the sunlight but unfortunately we just have not had enough moisture. that is a job well done but what about looking forward to climate change, higher temperatures and maybe more intense frequent rainfall and longer droughts? how much is all of that in your mind when it comes to the future of the crop? climate is always in our mind as farmers and growers. with more extreme weathers, we have to react to that extreme weather and the way we grow our crops and harvest, so smaller harvest windows and smaller drilling windows. thanks very much for showing us your operation and good luck with the rest of the harvest. the first heat of spring. it was so exciting then as europe emerged from the winter cold. the uk enjoyed its hottest april day since 1949 and the hottest early may holiday weekend on record,
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but unlike recent years, the heat stayed into summer and it got hotter. the temperature soared across europe and by early august, parts of iberia are in the grip of extreme heat. in portugal the temperature rose above 46. records fall injapan with a deadly heatwave in july seeing the temperatures climbing above 41 celsius for the first time. thousands of people require hospital treatment. the heat hit hard in canada, dozens die in quebec as the temperature tops 30. in australia, a multi—year drought they are calling the big dry continues in new south wales. farmers struggle to feed their cattle and the country's prime minister declares, we are now a land of droughts. back in the uk it is notjust hot but also the driest start the summer on record,
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and england's green and pleasant land turns brown. a question for you, where did your last enjoyable glass of wine come from? in the future it could quite easily be somewhere like belgium or vines in england. that is all down to our changing climate. according to international organisation vine and wine, 2017 saw wine production fall to its lowest level in 60 years largely down to traditional winemaking regions being subject to extremes from the weather, but it has created an opportunity for an english vineyards like this one in west sussex. researchers are carrying out studies which could be crucial to some vineyards‘ future survival. just show us what we're looking at, what this is, first of all. this logger records the temperature every hour, so the minimum and maximum temperature.
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and quite a few of these around. 19. what data will you take off this? the minimum and maximum temperature for every area. we do this 365 days a year. a particularly warm day here in west sussex but going to the top end of the vineyard, we talk about the different climate between wine regions, but within a vineyard microclimates can be outstanding. we are at the top of the vineyard and it is the difference between the top and bottom of the vineyard, it can be around three, 4 degrees. that is a remarkable difference over one field. what kind of impact does that have on the grapes and how they grow? these will be more sugary, less acidic. for the same varieties. i suppose the research may
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help people how to plan. find somewhere else for a more suitable climate. fantastic, thank you very much. later in the programme, we will be looking a bit closer to home at how climate change is affecting the english wine industry. hot, dry and now on fire. wildfires rage on the moorland of northern england, some of the worst in living memory, and the scale of the devastation is hard to believe. these fires are in sweden, stretching up to the arctic circle, where the temperature soars to new highs. in the usa, california's fire season is off to the worst start in a decade claiming several lives. within weeks, a number of huge fires are alight including the largest in the state's history, burning an area the size of los angeles.
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and disaster in greece injuly as a wildfire sweeps north—east of athens, killing more than 80 people. this fire like many of the others was started deliberately. india in may, and deadly dust storms, the worst in decades, sweeping across the north as the pre—monsoon heat peaks. over 100 people are killed. the monsoon rains bring heat relief. but in the indian state of kerala, the worst flooding in a century, hundreds killed in august and hundreds more in flooding across india. in the uk, the summer heat is occasionally interrupted by strong thunderstorms, and the flash flooding that follows. and injapan, as the weather swings wildly from extreme heat to this, historic flooding swamping large
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areas of the country and killing around 200 people injuly, the worst flooding disaster here since 1982. this summer's hot and dry weather may well affect the harvest. now we are on the hills above the glenlivet whisky distillery. the water here flows overground in streams and also underground in springs as well. and scientists from the university of aberdeen are here doing research to potentially safeguard the future. you are looking into the potential future impact of climate change. why is that important to the distillery? yes, with future climate projections we are expecting more extreme periods. of low floors and high temperatures, soul, reduced rainfall. what we're looking at for the project is the
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potential for using nature —based solutions to increase the volumes of water available and also more stable temperatures. so can you show me some of the monitoring that goes on? we use this to measure the level of the stream, the volumes of the stream water, and also the temperature. while sarah and jess get on with that, i am withjosie from the university of aberdeen. we found that volume of water, temperature of water is important for the distillery, and with climate change both of those may be difficult to achieve. how do you mitigate that? the solutions are management strategies and are designed by our understanding of the natural processes occurring. you might have heard of the solution in the context of the other hydrological extremes like flooding. what the strategies are designed for is to hold
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back and storm water the landscape and make that return to our streams slower. — —store water. and the keyword is natural. how important is it that it is natural for the good of the environment? we don't want to be building in order of the structures and keeping the integrity of the landscape, but moreover, these can have multiple benefits, not only potentially helping to mitigate floods and droughts, but it could also help to increase biodiversity and improve water quality and even carbon storage. thank you. that is the water covered, we have harvested the barley and just beyond those trees as the distillery where the two come together and the magic happens to produce whisky. we are going they are soon. ——going there. and now some of the weather watcher pictures, from the lightning storms that have let up the skies across parts of the uk in may. around 15,000 lightning strikes
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were recorded in just four hours. to become a weather watcher, sign up by going to our website. and coming up, i am back at a vineyard in west sussex finding out how climate change is shaping the english wine industry. we are looking at how weather and climate impact the world —famous whisky industry in scotland. earlier we saw how maintaining the quantity and temperature of the water supply is so important, and now we're in the distillery, where the barley we saw harvested earlier comes in here with the water and is all mixed together in the mashed up, where it is heated and you end up with a sugary liquid.
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this is transferred into the wash bag where it is cooled, it foments and you get alcohol. then all of this comes into play, talk about charlie and the chocolate factory with an alcoholic twist. what does this do? these whiskey spills are a real work of art shaped to an exact specification which helps to keep the unique flavour of the whiskey. we can hear more about exactly what is happening. here we are doing a double distillation, taking the air and putting it through stills. the first set to my right are worse still is that take the alcohol to about 30% and the spirit still stick it up to about 60%. ——wash stills. cooling waters really important part of the process and the use about 2.5 million litres a day, the same as an olympic sized swimming pool. earlier on and we metjess and josie who are doing research into the temperature and volume of the water, so why is that so important to?
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we have a lot of experience of the amount of water we need for cooling purposes, but in terms of the processed water we need, we are using that fiery cooling process where we take the liquid. what that means is that if the temperature is likely to increase in future we would need more water to do the same job, which could limit production. earlier on we were talking to a barley farmer explaining that his yield could be smaller this year. what impact or that have on future operations? in terms of the longer—term outlook we have had work done which suggests climate change means more soils could be suitable for growing barley, but to counteract that, some might need some delegation in future. thank you forjoining us. a little bit later in the programme, we are hoping to get better acquainted with the final product. and now the weather review continues with flash
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floods and these breathtaking scenes from turkey in may. a man clings to the bonnet of a car as it is swept away by torrential rain, many people entered. —— many people were injured. this is the us state of maryland, also in may, after 200 millimetres of rain injust two hours, barely two years since the summer flood devastated the city, and it's a market rescue in iran april, as a man is pulled to safety in flooding affecting towns and cities. switzerland in august, and a torrent of mud triggered by heavy storms crashes into an alpine village catching onlookers by surprise, nobody hurt. after the flood and mud is gone, some things the damage can't be repaired, turkey injuly,
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and the building collapses after flooding destroyed its foundations. this is fiji, feeling the force of a second cyclone in as many weeks. the prime minister says this pacific island nation is any fight for survival as climate change brings almost constant deadly cyclones. a rare powerful cyclone hits the arabian peninsula, the storm went on to make landfall, the most intense here in modern records. it has been an unusually quiet tornado season in the usa but how is this for a stunning view in wyoming injuly. these holiday—makers in russia but more than they expected on a trip to the beach with an amazing view of a water spout swirling over the black sea injuly. lost and now found, thailand
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injuly, and 12 boys and their football coach located deep within flooding cves, setting off a rescue mission that is a race against time as monsoon rains could have left them stranded for months. greenland in july, a large iceberg prompts evacuations, sending flooding soon armies towards the coastline. ——flooding tsunamis. this is how they deal with ice in china, just blow it up. that is explosives, breaking up the ice in spring lessens the risk of flooding when the temperature rises. but these people are very excited by ice and snow. you don't see very often in santiago, where there was a light covering in june. and the prize for the slushiest
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snowball fight ever goes to this one featuring the chilean president and his wife. a time when you couldn't imagine a quality english wine being produced from grapes like this but that has changed. here is the manager of the wine division at plumpton college. you have been involved in the wine industry for 30 years, what has changed with the english wine industry? the industry has completely changed than 30 years ago we were producing german style wines, chardonnay and pinot noir were nowhere near able to ripen, but now we're excellent sparkling wines and even some very good still wines. what are the big drivers, technology climate change? the most important as climate change, vines are extremely responsive to different climates, and that is what defines english wine. while the english wine industry benefits, other parts of the
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world traditionally known for producing great wines are struggling? absolutely, and the big problem is lack of water because higher temperatures often means more evaporation, but they are getting varieties ripening too early in the year, and heavy alcoholic wines which are not that exciting. we have one of the most intensively monitored vineyards in the world and we are monitoring all the temperature at a local scale, and also the growth of the vines, and we can take some measurements through just looking at the vines, but the drone can get us numerical data we can process to see how they are growing in different regions. we couldn't come to a vineyard without trying a glass of wine so can we try one now? who would have thought decades ago we would be
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sitting here enjoying an award—winning english sparkling wine? with climate change, what next? in england now, we have the climate that champion had in the 20th century saw in a few years maybe we will be as warm as the loire valley or possibly even badal. ——boredeaux. looking further south, across europe? thank you. cheers. just as a changing climate can bring opportunities, for one of britain's favourite sea birds, the puffin, the challenges are serious and potentially deadly. surrounded by the rich waters of the north sea, the rocky islands are home to thousands of them, and every five years national trust rangers carry out the painstaking three months task of counting every single one, investigating each bottle first signs of life. ——each burrow for.
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it is easy to see why the puffin is one of her favourite sea birds, they are colourful and charismatic but also under threat. the atlantic puffin is on the red list of threatened species meaning globally it is a danger of extinction. over the last decade numbers have dropped by thousands and it's thought climate change could be to blame as warming seas affect their main source of food. in some places the sand eels are moving north which means the puffins have to forage a lot further away to find food. we basically think that increased storm events mean increased mortality events which really affects the population. we have been on quite a whisky journey here in scotland seeing the barley in the fields and the water coming in, and now at last the final product, we are doing some tasting. i have been looking forward to this all day long and to take us through our tasting, the guide is megan,
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so what is first on the menu. we will start with first our founders reserve. if you take it up and have little smell, you should be getting through some citrusy fsuitz, fresh orange, lemon and lime. however, if you go ahead and try it, the flavours will slightly change, it will still be very sweet. however, it is a different type of sweetness coming through so you will get some syrupy fruits such as player and even toffee apple, so very different. it always surprises me how strong it is! i understand before it gets to the glass sun will evaporate from the cask? exactly, and here we lose roughly about 2% alcohol volume every single year, so we think it is quite a lot but it is not compared to warmer countries,
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in barbados they lose about 12% every year, so we are very lucky in scotland. so the climate of scotland is perfect for whisky. but the weather varies across scotland very much so in different regions you can really taste different flavours? i would say it is more down to production. with the barley and the water, not too much flavour change, but with production, different types of stills and shapes of stills give you different character. that is lovely but we have something even more special? we are going to be trying the 18—year—old. 0n the nose. you're taking my job! and finally, you may have heard of whiskey on the rocks but here is a panda on the rocks. ice used to good effect to keep giant pandas cool here in china.
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and that is it for this time, from the glenlivet distillery. from plumpton college, cheers. don't forget, you can see highlights from the previous programmes online. until next time, keep checking the forecast. cheers! you are getting those flavours coming through but there's a little more spiciness. i can get marzipan from that one. lovely. sorry, ijust forget how strong it is! i am not a whisky drinker. cheers!
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a fairly chilly start on saturday in places, sums sports got down to around two or three celsius, but we have had good bells of sunshine helping parameters to rise, a fine afternoon on the cornish coast. but of south—west england as well, some showers around, feeding down to the cheshire cat a parts of cheshire, north—west england the midlands, ever blah thunder and lightning in some of those showers. working their way south and east, through the midlands and down to the home counties, sunshine and charm of the northern ireland, also pleased in scotland. elsewhere dry. good bells of sunshine. a gentle looking moderate north—westerly breeze. the better byzantine temperatures getting up to between 18 and 20,000. cooler in the far north of scotland. showers will start to lose their energy to this evening, overnight
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most energy to this evening, overnight m ost pla ces energy to this evening, overnight most places become dry. clear skies at first before the class pass to build and as we had was dawn we see our base of rain arriving into northern ireland, western scotland, wales and south—west england. not quite as chilly tonight as last night. lows between seven and 11 celsius. a fairly unsettled day tomorrow, frontal system gradually working its way eastwards. increasing the cloud, bringing outbreaks of rain too many. strengthening the wind as well. a dry and perhaps bright start for some eastern counties, but it will not take long for the cloud to build, rain already in the west, some heavy. continuing to work its way plans. turning triable northern ireland, the western isles, south—west england through the afternoon. noticeable wind, quite gusty at times, average speeds, gas will be hired between western scotla nd will be hired between western scotland and southern codes. tempted tomorrow between 13 and 1970s, but given the rain, strength of the wind, it will feel quite cool for many. murray evening, outbreaks of
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rain continuing to work their way eastwards, clearing away overnight, hanging back showery rain across parts of scotland, showers feeding and across western parts, north—west england, as we head into through what is a bank holiday monday. monday. monday very similar to today, spells of sunshine but also a scattering of shadows. in the sunshine and should feel warmer on monday. tempted up to 18 and 20 2000. keeping some many fine and dry weather for many on tuesday, but later we will the outbreaks of rain affecting north—western parts of scotla nd affecting north—western parts of scotland and perhaps also rain returning to southern counties of england by the time we get on wednesday. goodbye. i'm anita mcveigh live in dublin — the headlines at 2. pope francis has arrived in ireland, for the first papal visit in almost a0 years. in the past hour he has
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said he is ashamed of the catholic church's failure to adequately address the "repellent crimes" of sex abuse by clergy. translation: the failure of ecclesiastical authorities, bishops, religious superiors, priests and others adequately to address these repellent crimes remains a source of pain and shame for the catholic community. i myself share these sentiments. i'm rebecca jones — the other headlines this hour.
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