by surprise. and all the taken by surprise. and all the guests who were staying on this property were injured. they were rescued by the locals and taken to the hospital. some of them were severely injured. this place was booked out for christmas, but now, as you see, it weighs a completely deserted look. that is the story of this region. it is a popular beach destination. thousands of indonesians come down, especially during this time of year, to spend their holidays and spend christmas here, but now this area is com pletely here, but now this area is completely empty. in fact the residents have moved inside, away from the coast, because there is still a tsunami warning in place until wednesday. there is no guarantee or surety whether the tsunami will take place this time or not. but the government is saying they do not want to take any chances at this time. the rescue operations are still on. the national disaster tea m are still on. the national disaster team is going from one property to another sifting through the debris to look for those who are still missing, but because of the bad weather the rescue operations have

been hampered. britain's security forces now have the technology needed to help combat the threat of drones, according the security minister ben wallace. it follows three days of disruption last week at london's gatwick airport. a couple who were arrested during the investigation have spoken after being released without charge, and say they feel "completely violated". as you can probably imagine, we are feeling completely violated. our home has been searched and our privacy and identity completely exposed. our names, photos, and other personal information have been broadcast throughout the world. we are deeply distressed, as are our family and friends. and we are currently receiving medical care. the actor kevin spacey has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenager in the united states. he's addressed the allegations by posting an unusual video online, in which he assumed his old character from the drama house of cards. mr spacey is due to appear in court next month. seismologists in italy have recorded

more than 130 earthquakes around the sicilian volcano, mount etna. europe's most active volcano erupted yesterday. volcanic ash has covered surrounding villages, forcing regional airports to close. the first female bishop of london has presided at a midnight communion service at st paul's cathedral. bishop sarah mullally has been speaking about poverty and homelessness, a theme which was also addressed by the leader of the catholic church in england and wales. during midnight mass at the vatican, pope francis urged people in rich countries to seek a simpler, less materialistic life. speaking at saint peter's basilica, he said people should consider whether they could manage without so many material objects. in the little town of bethlehem, hundreds of worshippers attended

midnight mass close to the grotto wherejesus is believed to have been born. mass took place in saint catherine's, next to the church of the nativity. the catholic archbishop for the holy land told here's carol with a look at this morning's weather. i don't think there is a white christmas. it may be faulty. happy christmas. it may be faulty. happy christmas everyone. a cold day for many. in aberdeenshire and fell to 8.4. it was milder in cornwall and devon, the overnight low was 10 degrees, plus 10 degrees. fortoday, christmas day, it will be mostly dry and cloudy. but we have got some dense fog across parts of the midlands and also eastern england, in particular. this weatherfront coming in from the west will drift eastwards a cross coming in from the west will drift eastwards across scotland. that will introduce some light and patchy rain

and drizzle. you can see a loss of cloud on the charts. the rain went through quickly. it will brighten up across north—east scotland. you are looking at some sunshine. such are developing across north—east wales, south—east england, and east anglia. for the rest of us it will be fairly cloudy, with temperatures between ten and i2. cloudy, with temperatures between ten and 12. not quite as lopez yesterday. through this evening and overnight, once again, cloud around —— lowell as yesterday. the weather front coming into the north—west will introduce some rain. thank you. now on breakfast it's time for the christmas edition of weather world, with nick miller and sarah keith—lucas. on one of the windiest days of the year we have come to one of the windiest places in the uk. which is just as well, this is the uk's biggest onshore wind farm. hold onto your hats. this is weather world. we will be getting up close to find out how these wind turbines works

and how much power they can generate on a stormy day like this. it's opposite to how a fan operates. a fan will plug into electricity and use it. the turbines do the opposite. also on weather world, the year's august storms. the floods that rage with unimaginable force. cyclones so powerful they transform a coastal paradise into piles of rubble. and amid warnings of climate catastrophe to come, wildfires reach new scales of size and devastation. and i'm at imperial college london, where they make their own wind to research how to keep the public safe. the wind turbine, it's the modern

incarnation of human‘s attempt to harness the air that blows for our own needs. the use of this cleaner renewable power source is expanding across the world reaching new heights in servicing energy demands. while the sight of these turbines is not to everyone's liking as more of them appear across the countryside, the growth goes on. uk's wind energy industry estimates offshore wind capacity is set to nearly double in just the next decade. when it comes to onshore wind farms in the uk they don't come any bigger than this. 215 of these turbines in an area ten miles across. we are in scotland, this is whitely near glasgow and i tell you what, every one of these turbines

is going like the clappers today, it's windy and sarah, it's getting windier. that's right, the wind is strengthening during the course of our visit today and more and more power is being generated as a result. later on we will look at how much energy has been produced during our visit but, peter, you are the area supervisor. is it a prime day for energy production? it's an excellent day. the site is pretty much running at full power, just over 530 megawatts of power. that's enough to provide electricity to round about 300,000 homes. on a day like this what sort of percentage of scotland's energy can be produced by wind power? the amount of wind power in scotland, there is every chance 100% of the country's electricity could be provided. what makes the location so prime? geographically it's the highest point between the coasts, it's very exposed, as you can feel

from the wind, it's an ideal location to put a wind farm, maximise wind yield. thank you. later on peter will take me for a drive around that site to talk about the management of the turbines and to get an idea of the sheer scale of this wind farm. and with this example of the power of wind we start the weather review of 2018 in the netherlands. in january. wind so strong it blows people off their feet. these are some of the strongest winds ever recorded here. this storm that strikes the us city of boston injanuary is dubbed a bomb cyclone, combining wind with snow and flooding and then this. as temperatures plummet, the flood freezes, entombing dozens of cars in ice. in the uk the first day of spring looked like this. the infamous beast from the east had arrived.

snow falls on large swathes of the british isles giving the worst march day on record. but if there is ever an example of keep calm and carry on, it's from this driver and her quick reactions in scotland. the big freeze covered much of europe giving rome its biggest snowfall in decades. so of course that means a mass snowball fight in st peter's square. the cold start to spring was soon a distant memory as the uk went on to experience its warmest april day since 1949 and the hottest early may holiday weekend on record. but by summer, a severe multi—continent heatwave was under way. this is japan. temperatures rose above 41 celsius for the first time here. and by early august parts of iberia are in the grip of extreme heat.

this is portugal, temperatures broke the 46 celsius mark. back in the uk, the driest start to summer on record turns the land from green to brown. wildfires rage on the moorland of northern england, they are some of the worst in living memory and the scale of the devastation is hard to believe. summer 2018 goes on to become the uk's joint hottest on record. but proof, as if we needed it, that the seasons are unstoppable and early snowfalls smother the hills of southern england at the end of november. when it comes to early snow, morocco takes the prize. these scenes from the end of october, the first snow of the season arriving two months ahead of schedule. i'm in a place where they make their own wind. here at imperial college london at the department of aeronautics they have two wind tunnels which they test regularly.

i'm joined by professor peter, an emiratus professor here, explain what you do. a professor of experimental aerodynamics. this is a very large wind tunnel which we flow around road vehicles, we look at wind energy devices, turbines, how efficient they are and we look at flow around buildings including looking at the comfort around buildings for pedestrians, it's a little loud, you mention you use these to test the effects on things like vehicles, and built up areas. yes, investigating the wind environment and how it is modified when a new building is planned to be put up. it is much better for an architect or consulting engineer to know at this stage, the early—stage,

what changes might need to be made to improve pedestrian comfort. later in the programme we'll come back and talk more about the impacts of wind on built up areas and high buildings. peter and i are taking a drive around the wind farm. you can get a sense of the scale, how massive this wind farm is. how long has it been in operation here? whiteley has been in operation for about ten years now, it opened officially in 2009, currently in our tenth year of service on the turbines. looking out at the turbines they cover a distance of about ten miles and they are widely spaced, why aren't they closely packed together? we could pack them together but as the wind passes through the rotors and hits the blades, it causes a kind of vortex. if that vortex hits another turbine it would inhibit the production of the turbine and the turbine may actually stop for vibrations. they have to be quite widely spaced

in order to let the wind set up as it passes through one rotor, from one to another. we had a look at the broad scale of the wind farm, nick is about to get better acquainted with a wind turbine, taking a closer look at the details of how they operate. this is the closest i've ever been to a turbine, the obvious thing is the size. the other thing which i hadn't realised is the sound of the blades whizzing through the air and another thing, when you see these from a distance, it seems like the blades aren't going round very fast but when you are right next to one, they whizzing through the air and you get the sense of the energy being harnessed. fiona is a project manager here at whiteley, bottom line these, how do they work? we are generating renewable energy by taking the wind passing through the turbine blades, the blades battering the kinetic

energy and that's what allows them to spin and it spins round a shaft inside the cell, generating and converting electrical energy, the opposite of how a fan operates. you plug a fan into electricity, and use electricity to generate wind, these turbines do the opposite. and there is other kit on these turbines, too, monitoring the weather so they can work at their maximum potential. yes, so there's a wind vein that measures direction that allows the turbines to face into the wind, and there's an anemometer which allows the blades to pitch, to turn to the prevailing wind and get the best from the aerodynamics. and can it be too windy? can the weather be so bad they will not work properly? it can sometimes. it's not too frequent, the turbines tend to be

available almost 100% of the time. but some weather events, the turbines would switch off automatically but it's not for a long of time, usually force ten conditions and above. today is usually as good as it gets. it's perfect, 40—50 mph wind, perfect for generating renewable electricity. and we'll find outjust how much electricity is generated when we join the head of the control centre a bit later. and now, in praise of beautiful sunsets, here's a selection of your weather watcher pictures from october, when some stunning examples could be seen across the uk. as the sun sets, its light travels through a greater depth of the atmosphere. much of its blue and green light scattered, but not the red, and this becomes the dominant colour we see. you can become a weather watcher by signing up online. still to come: freak floods and tropical cyclones. more of 2018's biggest storms. and this wind tunnel can generate

wind speeds of up to 100 mph. i'll be finding out how the research can help keep pedestrians safe. we are in scotland, at the uk's biggest onshore wind farm, whiteley. now, we've been outside to see the turbines, we've found out how they work, and now we've come inside to where they're monitoring the energy the turbines produce. it's the control centre, and mark is the manager here. mark, it's a good day for you, it's a windy day, and you'll have known about this windy day for quite some time. tell me about the weather information you get. we do, the wind is extremely important to us, it's our business, some of the models were used, we have a system we have developed with the met office and that was made a number of years ago and provides us with a 14—day bespoke weather forecast for all of our sites across the uk.

and that's notjust for wind. that's for rain, it's for snow, fog, many varying elements as well being used to operate our business. you can look at how much energy is generated but you can tie it down to an individual turbine. i was at turbine 55 earlier, how is that doing today? we can look on the system, turbine 55 at the moment is roughly about 70 metres per second wind, that's about 35 mph. and at the moment it's producing its maximum megawatt energy that it can produce. around 1,300 homes can be powered in a year. from that one turbine? that one turbine. quite incredible. we are providing some balance in services for national grid but we have produced to the marker we are expected to. also wind farms across the uk are monitored from here. they monitor and control 40 wind farms from here from northern scotland to cornwall, ireland,

to even off the coast of germany. in total, 1,000 wind turbines. now, our weather review of 2018 continues with huge waves smashing into seafront apartments in tenerife, in the canary islands, in november. amazingly no—one was injured. but the toll was much greater in the worst flash—floods ever to hit the spanish island of majorca. three times the october average rainfall came in just a few hours. 12 people were killed. in japan, historic flooding swamped large areas of the country injuly, killing around 200 people. the worst flooding disaster here since 1982. flash—floods come with tremendous force. this is tunisia, in september, after what was said to be its heaviest deluge in almost 25 years. jordan, in november, and this video capturing the moment a flash—flood pours into the ancient city of petra

after weeks of heavy rain in the country. this bus is no match for the sheer power of a monsoon—flooded river in the indian state ofjammu and kashmir in september. in southern india, this area is hit hard by a monsoon, the worst flooding in a century killing hundreds. and breathtaking scenes from turkey in may. a man clings to the bonnet of a car as it is swept away after torrential rain in ankara. several people were injured. it's been another year of intense tropical cyclones. this is typhoon mangkhut hitting hong kong, in september, as the most powerful ever recorded here. fiji, in april, feeling the force of a second cyclone in as many weeks. fiji's prime minister says this pacific island nation is in a fight for survival, as climate change brings almost

constant deadly cyclones. the atlantic hurricane season was dominated by two storms that hit the usa. first florence, in september, stalling over the carolinas and dumping massive amounts of rain, the wettest tropical cyclone ever recorded in this part of the usa. worse was to come in october. there it goes. as michael became the most powerful hurricane to hit the florida panhandle, and the fourth—strongest to make la ndfall in the usa. there were fears it would cause catastrophic damage, but the reality of what the storm left behind was worse than could ever have been imagined. much of what used to be the city of mexico beach is destroyed. this is a scale model of the city of london. i'm back at the department of aeronautics in imperial college london with professor peter beardman.

peter, why do designers and architects need to be concerned about the strength of the wind when they are looking at new buildings? a number of reasons. one is the wind going to destroy the building, have i made it strong enough? but the point of these quite complex models that you see here is to look at what effect the building will have on the local wind environment at street level. is it going to make pedestrians very uncomfortable? are they going to be blown over? what we're doing in this tunnel is simulating the characteristics of the natural wind, and so the energy in the wind increases with height, so the height hitting the top of the tall, neutral building is going to be stronger than it is at lower levels. and also, it can divert some of that wind down to ground level. you have ramped up the wind, it's feeling stronger. you wouldn't normally use smoke, though, would you? no, we wouldn't normally use smoke,

and we wouldn't normally be kneeling in front of the model, because we're creating a lot of our own gusts here. you and i have become high—rise buildings. we have. it's not recommended. how are you then monitoring the strength of the wind, the gusts around these buildings? well, we have sensors embedded, coming through the floor of the model, and they are measuring the wind speed at the height of a typical pedestrian. well, peter, it's been fascinating being here today. thank you so much for your time. pre—monsoon windstorms in india are an annual feature of the weather, but these in may were the worst in decades as they sweep across the north, whipping up dust after the dry months. over 100 people are killed. some storms gather sand and then roll it out over huge distances. this massive storm was caught

on camera in china's gansu province in november, the sand from the nearby gobi desert. disaster in greece injuly. strong winds caused the rapid spread of a wildfire through a north—east area of athens. the destruction left behind reveals only some of the horror that unfolded here. more than 80 people died, many of them as they sought safety on the beach. and it's been yet another year of devastating wildfires in california. fanned by strong santa ana winds, this one in november sweeps towards the coastal homes of the rich and famous in malibu. it's the worst fire here in living memory, respecting neither the beautiful setting of the homes it destroys, nor the wealth of their owners. but even this pales in comparison to this. virtually the entire town of paradise, lost to the deadliest, most destructive wildfire the state has ever known. apocalyptic scenes that prompt

a heightened debate about the impact climate change could be having in california. more than 80 people died here. you have to go back 100 years to find a wildfire that has killed more people in the usa. rain to dampen the fire eventually arrives, with a number of storms going into december, causing flooding and bringing fears of mudslides. turn around, the flash—flood's right there. no—one wants a repeat of this. get out, go. the moment a mudslide hit the californian town of montecito, at the start of 2018, following major wildfires the previous month. at least 20 people died in the destruction that followed. down under now, and a multi—year drought they are calling the big dry continues in the australian state of new south wales. these scenes in august showed farmers struggling to feed

and water their cattle. since then there has been some rain, in fact, flooding from the heaviest november rain in decades in sydney. but long—term rainfall deficits remain. how many of you? 13 — brilliant. lost for nine days, and now found. in thailand, 12 boys and their football coach are located deep within flooded caves. setting off a race against time and weather as monsoon rains could leave them stranded for months. it's a mission that captures the attention of the world, and one that was complete just over a week later, with all the boys brought to safety. in a year that our use of plastic and the impact of it on the world around us has risen in prominence, astonishing scenes from the lebanese capital, beirut, in september. a flood of rubbish and plastic after a torrential storm. from new warnings of the rate of the earth's warning, amid the first rise in global co2 emissions in four years,

2018 saw a report after report highlighting the impact of living in a world with rising temperatures. and in december, at a united nations climate conference in poland, renowned naturalist and broadcaster sir david attenborough warned of a man—made disaster on a global scale. if we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world, is on the horizon. applause. we're back in the control centre at whiteley, the uk's biggest onshore wind farm. and mark, we've been itching to know since the beginning of our visit todayjust how much energy has been produced here. sarah, today at whiteley, we've produced six gigawatt hours, we expect across—the—board folio to produce around 34 gigawatt hours. a very productive day across the uk and particularly here at whiteley.

we are already at 30% of the uk's power produced by wind energy, is that figure going to increase, is it something you expect to grow? absolutely, our drive is to build more onshore wind, the cheapest form of energy. but also solar, other storage elements too, and we want to capture that to provide the best energy links. thank you so much for having us here in showing us around your operations. you're very welcome. thank you. in fact, the day we filmed, strong winds across the uk helped to set a new renewable energy record with wind farms supplying almost a third of the uk's electricity needs. and now to one of the more unusual sights of 2018, an almost perfectly rectangular iceberg, more than a kilometre across, flowing in the sea off antarctica in october. the clean lines and sheer edges proving its recent separation from an ice shelf.

and finally... # the weather outside is frightful. not for these children, it's not. their delight is because this is the first time they have ever seen snow. it's november in the canadian city of toronto, where snow is hardly headline news. but for these eritrean children, who have come from a refugee camp in sudan, it's reason to celebrate. but don't get too carried away — there's a lot of winter still to go. # let it snow, let it snow... and that's it with this time on weather world. sarah, i know it's a good thing to come to a wind farm, but can we go back inside? i will get you a warm cup of tea in a moment. the highlights from the previous programme, go to the website, look out for more weather world in 2019. until then, keep checking the forecast. happy christmas and welcome to breakfast with louise minchin. our headlines today: rescuers battle to prevent disease spreading in the wake of the tsunami in indonesia that's killed

more than 370 people. after three days of disruption at gatwick airport, the government says drone detection systems can now be deployed throughout the uk. the actor kevin spacey is charged in america with sexual assault and releases a video addressing allegations made against him.