president biden has defended his decision to withdraw us troops from afghanistan — a move which led to taliban militants returning to power after 20 years. mr biden said staying longer was not an option, before praising troops for organising an airlift of more than 120,000 people. in kabul, taliban fighters have been showing off some of the military equipment and weapons left behind by us forces. they have also been pointed out that they now control more of afghanistan than they did in 2001. rescue operations are continuing in louisiana as hurricane ida continues to bring life—threatening floods. authorities say it could take weeks to restore electricity and reliable water services to over one million people. now on bbc news, nick miller

and sarah keith lucas ask if recent environmental disasters could mark a turning point in the world's approach to climate change. this time on weather world, code red for humanity. the stark warning that time is running out to prepare for climate catastrophe. it's the beginning of the future that could be very catastrophic and very very hard for us to survive in. after the heat, the floods on a catastrophic scale, killing hundreds of people amid claims that we are simply not prepared for more extreme rainfall. i will be asking whether these disasters could mark a turning point in how the world reacts to climate change and i'll be finding out why even a small empty reservoir like this one can help protect us from the effect of it. and how the way our food is prepared to adapt to climate

change and why some farmers are interested in the weather as they are at home. also on mother world, predicting meningitis outbreaks in sub—saharan africa. and also, how the tussle over earth's highest temperatures and why exact extremes matter. we know the climate is changing and we can in partjudge that climate change by the quality of the observations that are being used to assess it. welcome to weather world. what do mexico, finland, hungary, estonia, 0man, republic of congo have in common?

they are all countries that set new temperature records since april. but it is what happened in canada in a week of extreme heat and then fire that took the eyes of the world to a small village in british columbia. the whole village is going. this was filmed by residents fleeing as it burned almost to extinction. for three straight days injune, it recorded canada's highest temperature on record, reaching 49.6 celsius. just before fire swept through it, burning nearly everything. it was a historic heatwave in western canada and the northwest usa as a so—called high—pressure heat dome crew over the area both trapping and building the heat day on day. it is thought the extreme heat was a contributing factor in hundreds of deaths. california suffering another disastrous fire season,

with the state's second largest fire on record almost destroying the town of greenville in august. searing heat in europe too and on the italian island of sicily, it verified that it is europe's highest temperature on record during the heatwave felt across the mediterranean. for nine days thousands of greek firefighters of struggle to contain the raging flames that have destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of land. 0n the island of avia in august, hundreds were carried to safety after they fled to the beaches. fires burned around the greek capital athens. injuly it became the first european city to appoint a heat officer. i asked her what it had been like there. it was devastating to a large

extent because it feels like it is a premonition for the future. it is the beginning of a future that can be very catastrophic and very hard for us to survive in, around the mediterranean. and the more the forest burns, the higher the temperatures and less the humidity and it's what they've been telling us for years now all of the scientists talking about climate change. that this could start getting out of control. the devastation is also the fact that we have not been prepared, right? if we were better prepared, we would not have this amount of destruction and the amount of ravaging of our ecosystems and of people's livelihoods

of the areas that were burned. extreme rainfall is dominated the headlines too. london injuly and flash flooding after a month's worth of rain fell in just a few hours. as the same weather system swept east across europe, it strengthened, turning disruption into disaster. in germany floods wiped out entire villages. at erstadt, the ground just fell away under the weight of water in the night. over 100 people died germany alone. hundreds of people were trapped in an underground metro system in china where years with the rain fell in just three days. in the usa, death and destruction in tennessee in august as over 400 mm of rain falls in just 2a hours. a new state record. vehicles are tossed around

in a torrent in turkey in august as flooding causes chaos in northern parts of the country. scientists say we are unprepared for extreme rainfall. too often action comes after rather than before a flood. where i'm standing now is a reservoir in berkshire. it's supposed to be empty but is one of a number that is been developed here designed to fill up with flood water to prevent it rushing unchecked towards thatcham, over there. and that is what happened back in 2007, when over 1000 homes were flooded here as nearly 100mm fell in just 2a hours. the flood prompted this scheme to build these reservoirs with this one alone capable of holding 25,000 m3 of water. scientists say that a warmer world means more frequent and intense rainfall injuly was the roads hottest month with records going

back up to 42 years. a united nations report in august said without immediate deep cuts to emissions, global temperatures rise to one and a half or even 2 degrees will be beyond reach. to help in the context everything that we've been single for the past few months, i'm joined by professor hannah cloake a climate scientist and hydrologist of the university of reading here in the uk. we are shocked, but there is an element of climate science that says i told you so. but we can also be not surprised by these events. if you see the scale of the flooding and heed to be seen in the fires, it's impossible not to be shocked by this kind of thing. but we do know that these types of rainfall and these types of heat events are possible and we have seen some of these in the historical record as well. but we looked towards the future climate and we know that the more of this is coming

and we have to be prepared. rainfall has been extreme but are we prepared enough for these events for example, little things like this reservoir significant in stopping floods. are we prepared, well enough for these rainfall events? it's really frustrating because as a climate scientist and hydrologist to see people not prepared for these really bad floods that we have seen. i know that we have to have places like this reservoir to store water, to stop it rushing down to peoples houses and into the streets. we just haven't done anything about it. we make such small steps and we know that the future is going to get worse. so we need more of this preparation. could these disasters actually focus the mind and become a turning point with how the world faces up the climate change? i hope we do take note of these events and that we don't wait for terrible events to happen like here. we do something now

and we do something to prepare for the worst. we will return later in the programme as we look at the major climate conference coming up in november. right now, it's time to figure out what sarah is doing we are all affected by climate change, but viewers connected to the natural world is a farm like this and it's your livelihood then the stakes are high. in an industry that is always involved with the degree of risk, things are not getting any easier. the farm i have come to see was established over 70 years ago and is huge, covering more than 900 hectares. it is a farm where the main crops or wheat, oilseed rape and potatoes. alan is the farm director here. alan, you've been farming for generations in kent, but have you noticed any changes in recent decades? the weather so really locked up in different segments

in looking at this year. april yet one of the trade segments of and may was by the wettest in june was the sunshine we rely on has really been reduced and that affects our yield. it really has changed. what have you had to do to adapt to these changes? this is bigger than what we have had in the past. a new fancy header on it which is on a rubber belt, which gathers in the crop brings that in in slightly wetter conditions and allows us to do a bit more each day. about a0 acres of wheat here, and when you do differently in terms of when you plant this crop compared to what you have done traditionally? traditionally this would've been a plough—based system, and the winter, would've ploughed it for the spring cropping and very much released an awful lot of carbon and an awful lot of energy and to reduce that,

we are drilling in the autumn, and without that plough, we are reducing the carbon that way. once all the crop has been harvested, what do you do to protect that soil from increasing extreme rainfall events ? in the autumn, we would drill a crop into there, use that as almost as a false crop during the winter period and then we would kill off that crop and plant a new crop in there which will be our cash crop for the spring. we see really heavy storms that we are trying to protect and try to protect our precious soil that we need to farm. thank you very much, alan. later i'll be looking at why solar panels are becoming just as common as sheep in some fields. into india where this monsoon was late to arrive, but when it did, record—breaking rainfall lead to severe flooding,

including here in maharashtra july. and intense rain is said to be a factor in certain landslides in this area. this one injuly sending huge boulders towards and then destroying a bridge. tropical storm henri strikes in new york city in august as lightning hits the one world trade center in central park received its highest one hour rain total on record. tornadoes now and terrifying scenes you might think are from the usa, but this is the czech republic. injune with winds up to 200 mph ripped through moravia. the damage it caused us on a scale so unusual for a tornado in europe. thankfully, this tornado in canada injune is only

reported to have caused minimal crop damage, but was certainly an incredible sight from a distance. let's not forget the southern hemisphere winter. a rare widespread snowfall brought crowds in southern brazil injuly. many of them seeing snow for the first time. now for some of your weather watch pictures from northern ireland's hottest weather on record. with the temperature reached 43.3 celsius onjuly the 21st. this heatwave saw northern ireland and of wales and england covered by a new met office extreme heat warning, designed to highlight the danger prolonged heat can have on people's health. still to come on weather world. no time for delay and no room for excuses. the urgent morning ahead of a key climate summit later this year. there is no denial any more.

that we are beginning to see these impacts and these are devastating for us as a country, as an economy. most of us check the weather forecast every day, perhaps to know what to wear for us what the weather is going to be like when we are filming weather world. not many of us check the forecast to prevent our chances of catching a deadly disease. but that is the aim of a ground—breaking project now under way in africa. meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal column and in this part of africa — the meningitis belt is, seeing thousands of cases every year with many infections leading to death. a link between weather and spread of the disease has led to a new early warning system led in africa by doctor dion. we know from this that there is a link between the meningitis outbreak.

we are looking at temperature and humidity and dust and we are making a map forareas— where meningitis is expected during the dry season. an early warning for meningitis can make a decision for vaccination before electing a district to be rainy, it can help to stop the outbreak. this joint project between african and british scientists will play a part in the goal to eradicate meningitis in africa by 2030. renewable sources. and that is why we travel around the countryside, you will notice more of these.

in the uk, the nfu says 70% of the country's solar capacity is hosted by agriculture. while making a contribution towards net zero carbon emissions they take up land that could be used for growing crops and many people say they detract from the natural beauty of the countryside. we come down to a different part of the farm now. talk us through what we can see here. we are down at romney marsh, just 26 turbines behind us and in front of a series of the second part. over 120 acres. 20 mw capacity and enough electricity for 20,000 homes. i spoke to your brother about ways you are adapting to climate change in terms of your traditional agricultural practices. what drove your decision

to move to renewables? we are trying to make a decision based on the different climate impacts that can happen, in the way that extreme weather is experienced now and to do that, look at revenue streams that could help plateau out the lows when you have a bad year as we have experienced in previous years. how difficult was the decision to move into renewables and in the local community did it split opinion? yes, it does. there's a number of things for us to consider and an environmental side for us to consider. the emotional side and the business side and the revenue stream that comes with it. but people with mindsets towards climate change accept renewable energy is warranted and needed. people might be surprised to hear that you are interested in weather around the world. how do big weather events affect you such as the north

american heat wave that you have seen this year? a massive impact on the farm. extreme weather situations across the world can have a serious impact on the commodity price. earlier this year there was 50% increase due to severe weather in other parts of the world. alan has to look at peaks and troughs to affect his price. thank you for showing us around. death valley in the usa, unarguably one of the hottest places on earth. butjust how hot is being argued in the meteorological world. it currently holds the record for the highest temperature on earth. 56.7 celsius, 124 fahrenheit back in 2014. at this weather station that just doesn't add up according to weather historian

christopher bert. it's gotta be a bit screwy in terms of 1913 when it looked like maybe he was just filling in the spaces because we've seen them all of the same, day after day, but the temperature was very varying widely from day to day at all the other surrounding sites. so, there was a little bit of a red flag at the beginning there. the world meteorological 0rganisation verifies temperature records and they signed off the investigations saying that they have not seen enough evidence to discount the 1913 reading. obviously, we don't have as good data as we do with modern records today. we can take a record and actually have the sensor that recorded it tested independently in the lab and make sure it was working. we don't have that luxury of observations that go back to the 1900s. but we do the best that we can, and in the case that of death valley 1913 record, the evidence does has not been presented yet that it was

a faulty observation. wmo temperature verifications take time and injuly, it officially recognised the new high temperature from antarctica, over a year after it was recorded in 2020. christopher burt says time is not on the side of the 1913 death valley record. the fact of the matter is, the time, if there was an investigation and takes two or three years, 134 is probably going to factor somewhere else in the earth in the next three years anyhow. it's kind of a moot point, i think going forward. the wmo is also looking at the new europe high temperature from italy in august. randy saveni says that it is important to get the investigations into extremes right. we need to know extremes

so we can build a better world. we know that the climate is changing and we can in part, judge that climate change by the quality of the observations that are being used to assess it. in a few months from now, a summit of world leaders to be held here in the uk will be hugely important in formulating a global response to climate change with the united nations saying that only a combined international effort can avert a climate catastrophe. the conference called cop 26 will be held in glasgow, a city which saw flash flooding after thunderstorms in august. we asked some of the delegates from around the world to give us their thoughts on what they wanted to achieve. it is highly important that all of the countries agree to legally binding agreements, to mitigate against climate change. the face of climate change cannot be those highly

capable institutions, it is the people who are feeling the punch should, feel what they're going through and what it means to them and that needs to be taken into consideration so that we can accelerate and have faster changes than what is been happening. the monsoon is really the true finance minister of india. in the monsoon is what millions in this country survive on. with climate change, what we're seeing is huge changes in this. a year on average and now we're going to more rain in less hours. which means that we are getting extreme rain events, meaning floods and then prolonged droughts. i think we need to see

that the world is at risk and that we as a country can and will do more. talking about the crucial summit on the way, i'm joined by professor hannah cloake, climate scientist at the university of reading. these disasters that we've seen, as horrible as they are, could they add a sense of urgency to proceedings in glasgow? it's very frustrating as a climate scientist, to know and we are in danger and the world is burning, really and nobody�*s doing anything about it and it happens again and we say the same things and then there's another conference and we're still saying the same things and nobody is listening. please let us take some firm action this time and i think we can avert the worst of the disaster but we are coming up to the time it may be too late. because we are told that if action is not fast, then we are facing catastrophe. we must do something now.

people must listen to this and as climate scientists, we have been clamouring about this for so long and it has come to the stage where we cannot shout any louder and we just need everyone to listen we really do have a chance to avoiding the worst of the disaster. hannah, thank you so much for talking to us on this edition of weather world. finally a rather unusual pitch invasion in bolivia. a whirlwind or dust devil went sweeps through the players, delaying the start of the game. it's tough for the match itself was as dramatic as this. and that is it for weather world. at this year's weather. and before then, look at the bbc�*s coverage of the climate conference in november. but for now, it is goodbye.

hello there. the last day of august was rather cloudy and cool with spots of drizzle across eastern areas. best of any sunshine towards the west. indeed the next few days, first few days of september are looking pretty similar, often cloudy, occasional drizzle in the east. a little bit of sunshine at times, particularly across more sheltered western parts. for wednesday it's a rather cloudy picture again. the thickest of the cloud across eastern coasts where we will see light rain or drizzle. but through the afternoon we could see quite a bit of sunshine for scotland, maybe northern ireland for the western fringes of wales and into the southwest. but it will be breezy across the channel. certainly around the north sea coasts. that will take at the edge off the temperature, highs here around the mid to upper teens. further inland a little bit warmer where you have the sunshine across central western scotland in particular we could see temperatures reaching around 21—22 degrees.

as we head through wednesday night it stays mostly cloudy so for england and wales, a bit of cloud continuing for eastern scotland then it will trundle its way eastward although some western parts of scotland, northern ireland could stay clear. it will be fairly cool under clear skies where we have the cloud and the breeze, 11—14 degrees. very little change for thursday and friday. an area of high pressure still sitting on top of us and bringing this north— north—easterly airflow. it'll bring a lot of cloud again into northern and eastern areas in particular. further west that you are, a better chance of seeing some sunnier breaks of course, temperatures in the sunshine reaching the low 20s. otherwise it's mid to high teens in the cloudier spots. for the weekend, signs of change with an area of high pressure beginning to break down and moving eastward which allows this area of low pressure to slowly push in from the atlantic. that's going to bring in increasing breeze and also the chance of showers or even longer spells of rain, particularly for part two of the weekend. saturday doesn't look too bad. looks like it will stay mostly dry. variable cloud, light winds,

with some sunshine. the winds will start to pick up across southern and western areas as that area of low pressure arrives and by the end of the day he could start to see showery bursts of rain arriving here. temperatures, low 20s in the brighter spots. mid to high teens across the far northeast. into sunday it looks like we will see a band of rain start spreading across the country so that could be quite heavy, followed by sunshine and heavy showers.

this is bbc news i'm david eades. our top stories. president biden issues a forceful defence of the chaotic us withdrawal from afghanistan — ending america's longest war. we succeeded in what we set out to do in afghanistan over a decade ago and we stayed for another decade. it was time to end this war. the taliban take the spoils of war — american uniforms, american weapons left behind in the rush to get out. now it is ended and the worst of ways. and it will live long in memory here in afghanistan, in america and far beyond. in california — thousands forced to evacuate and there

are fears of worse to come from the wildfires .