collman told the paper she was glad to have spoken with the president at christmas. she also confirmed she had left cookies and milk out for santa, and when she woke the following morning, they were gone. hello again. for many it has been a cloudy, damp and misty start. as we go through the afternoon we will start to see some breaks in the cloud. rain in northern and western scotland. some brighter and sunny spells developing in north—east of scotland, parts of the central lowlands, north—east england, north east wales and southern counties. mild for this stage in december. tens, 11s and possibly 12s. rain turning light and patchy as it sinks south. patchy mist and fog and potentially some frost in sheltered part of the south of england. tomorrow we start with sunshine. as you can see, a lot of cloud.

a little bit of rain. tomorrow we expect to be sunnier than today with highs of 11. you're watching bbc news. our headlines. japan confirms that will is restart well hunting. shoppers hit the traditional boxing day sales and is estimated bargain hunters will spend almost £4 million. several people have been injured and buildings have collapsed after an earthquake close to the erupting mount etna in sicily. scientists in cambridge have developed a virtual reality 3—d model of a tumour in a bid to find new cancer treatments.

now it is time for a christmas edition of whether world. nick miller and sarah keith lucas report on the incredible power of wind from the destruction caused by hurricanes to its huge potential to power the planets. 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 farms. hold onto your hats. we will be getting up close to find out how these wind turbine 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 , 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 humans' 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 our energy demands.

while the size of these turbines is not to everyone's likings 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 whiteley 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 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 wind energy production?

it's an excellent day. the site is pretty much running at full power, just over 530 megawatts of power. that's energy to provide electricity to rant 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 dry 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 close 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, into mean dozens of cars in eyes. in the uk the first day of spring looked like this. the infamous beast from the east had arrived. snow blanketed large swathes of the british isles giving the coldest march day on record. but if there is ever an example of keep calm and carry on, it's from this bus 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 smothers 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 emeritus professor here, explain what you do. this is a very large low speed wind tunnel, went on all 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, cyclists, for the wind effects. 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 the architecht d 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 will come back and talk more about the impacts of wind on. 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 its disrupted by the blades, it causes a kind of vortex. at that or text 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're whizzing through the air and you get the sense of the energy being harnessed. 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 a shout inside the cell, generating and converting electrical energy, the opposite of how a fan operates. a fan plugs into electricity, using electricity to generate wind, these turbines do the opposite. there is other kit on these turbines, monitoring weather so they can work at their maximum potential.

that's right, there is a wind vane that measures direction that allows the turbines to face into the wind and there is an anemometer which allows them to pitch in turn to the prevailing wind and give the best from the aerodynamics. can it be too windy, can the weather be so bad they will not work properly? can sometimes, it's not too frequent, the turbines tend to be available almost 100% of the time, some weather events the turbines would switch off automatically but it's not for a long of time, usually forced ten conditions and above. today is usually as good as it gets. it's perfect, 40—50 miles an hour wind, perfect for generating renewable electricity. and now, in praise of beautiful sunsets, here's a selection of your weather watcher pictures from october, some stunning examples could be seen across the uk. as the sun sets its light

travels through a greater depth of the amosphere, watch of the blue and green light scattered, but not the red, this becomes the dominant colour. you can become a weather watcher online 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 miles an hour. i'll be finding out how research can help keep pedestrians safe. we are in scotland and the uk's biggest onshore wind farm, whitelee. we've been outside to see the turbines, we've found out how they work, now we are inside to where they are monitoring the energy the turbines produce. it's the control centre and mark as the manager here.

it's a good day for you, you 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 this book weather forecast for all of our sites across the uk, that's for rain, snow, fog, many varying elements as well badly 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 when, about 35 miles an hour, at the moment producing its maximum megawatt energy that it can produce, around 1,300 homes can produce in the year.

from that one turbine? that one turbine. flat out today, we are providing some balance and services for national grid but we have produced the marker we are expected to. also wind farms across the uk are monitored fire. they monitor and control 40 wind farms from here from northern scotland to cornwall, ireland to off the coast of germany, with 1000 wind turbines. now, the 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, 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 the monsoon flooded river in the indian state of 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 links 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 a typhoon 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 the pacific island nation is in a fight for survival as climate change brings almost constant deadly cyclones. the atlantic hurricane season was dominated why two storms that it 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. michael became the most powerful hurricane to hit the florida panhandle and the fourth strongest to make landfall 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 reach is destroyed. this is a scale model of the city of londonderry i'm back at the department of aeronautics in imperial college london with professor 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 needed strong enough? 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 ? what we are 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 a tall, neutral building is going to be stronger than it is at lower levels. and also, it can avert 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? we wouldn't normally and we wouldn't normally be kneeling in front of the model. you and i have become high rise buildings. we have. it's not recommended. we have sensors embedded, coming through the floor of the model and they are measuring the wind speed at the height of the typical pedestrian. 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 are the worst in decades as they sweep across the north, flipping up dust from the dry months. over 100 people are killed. some storms gather sand and of them and roll it out over huge distances. this massive storm was caught on camera in a chinese province in november, the sound 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 sought safety on the beach. and it's been yet another year of devastating wildfires in california. fanned by strong santa anna 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 destroys nor at 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 estate has ever known. apocalypse exceeds property 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 killed more people in the usa. rains dampen the fire, and number of storms going into december, causing flooding and bringing fears of mudslides. turnaround, the flash flood is 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 previous month. at least 20 people died in the destruction that followed. down under now and a multi—year drought here 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? lost for nine days and now found. thailand in july. 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 about the rate of the earth's warning, from the first rise in global carbon dioxide emissions in four years, this year saw a report after report highlighting the impact of living in a world with rising temperatures and in december, at a united nations client conference in poland renowned naturalist and broadcasters are david attenborough warned of a man—made disaster on a global scale. if we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisation is and the extinction of much of the natural world, is on the horizon. applause we are 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 how much energy has been produced. sarah today, we've produced six gigawatt hours, we expect across—the—board folio to produce around 34 gigawatt hours, today today we are at a record breaking working day. a very product day across the uk and particularly here. we are ready 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, the dry is to build more onshore wind, the cheapest form of energy, it's solar, other storage elements to 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 are very welcome. in fact, the day we found, 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 than a kilometre across, flowing in the sea off antarctica in october. the clean lines and sheer ages 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, snow is hardly headline news here 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 is a lot of winter still to go. let it snow, let it snow! sarah, i know it's a good thing to come to a win for can be 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, until then, keep checking the forecast. hello again. for many it has been a cloudy, damp and misty start. as we go through the afternoon we will start to see some breaks in the cloud. rain in northern and western scotland. this rain will break across north—east scotland and parts of the central lowlands, north—east wales and southern counties and here we

should see some sunshine. temperatures easily in double figures for the bulk of the uk, which is milder than we would expect it's the of december. we do still have a weather front, slowly slipping southwards, so there will be some breaks in the crowd and we will see some patchy mist and fog forming. the cloud remains broken in the south and the odd spot of frost. by the south and the odd spot of frost. by morning, we start off on that note. a bright and frosty start in the south but you can still see a fair bit of cloud. as i weather front continues to sink southwards and eastwards, continuing to weaken, it might have the odd spot of drizzle on it but it will likely be cloud and had to break up throughout the day so tomorrow will end up being a sunny day in today but a cooler one across parts of the south. as we head on from thursday and friday, high—pressure dominating

oui’ and friday, high—pressure dominating our weather. likely to see some dense fog patches form across southern areas. another weather front coming in from the west, introducing rain. some of the fog in the south will be slow to lift, and you can see too, a lot of sunshine communion across northern scotland and northern england. as we move into saturday, we start with some rain in the north that in the course of the day dries up and we'll see some sunshine. this is the same on sunday and both days will be mild. this is bbc news. the headlines: japan announces it is to resume commercial whaling next year, and leave the organisation that aims to protect whales, in defiance of a global ban. retailers pin their hopes on boxing day sales, with bigger discounts expected, as shops try to make up for weak trading in the lead up to christmas. an earthquake around

mount etna in sicily. several people have been injured and buildings damaged. a new way to see cancer. scientists develop a virtual reality 3d model of the disease to help in the search for new treatments. and coming up, after a year of tensions