persons the headlines. addressing crowds at st peter's square, pope francis has described his predecessor, benedict xvi, as �*a faithful servant of the gospel and the church'. pope benedict died yesterday at age of 95. celebrations have been taking place around the world to herald the start of 2023. the firework display in london also paid tribute to the late queen, elizabeth ii. as russian missiles strike kyiv — a former war crimes prosecutor calls for vladimir putin to be tried this yearfor crimes against humanity. sir geoffrey nice said the case against the russian leader "could not be clearer". and croatia begins the new year with a new currency — switching from the kuna to the euro, and entering the europe's schengen zone, which allows internal travel without border checks. it's just ten years since

croatia joined the eu. you are watching bbc news. now, weather world. this time on weather world, we are at raf coningsby which set, the uk's highest temperature record this summer during our hottest heatwave. and i will be finding out what it was like that day and how heat and other severe weather affects operations here. i am here at the uk's national meteorological archive and i will be finding out how that new record temperature and all weather observations are used to paint a picture of the uk and the world's changing climate. if we want to understand our climate of the future, the first step is we need to understand our climate now and we also need to understand our climate going back into the past. all these sleeping bags and tents are for people in pakistan still homeless after one of the country's most devastating floods.

i will report on 2022's biggest storms and look at what happens after weather disaster strikes. i am at raf coningsby, not only a place very close to my heart in that it is where i began my forecasting career, but to british meteorology it's a very important place, because this july at this very stevenson screen, we recorded the uk highest temperature of 40.3 celsius. good evening. it has been a day of record—breaking temperatures across the uk. more than a0 celsius for the first time. july the 19th, the uk's hottest day, but as temperatures soared after the driest start to the year since 1976, drought and fire resulted. here in wennington in east london,

a small blaze soon became an inferno that destroyed 19 homes. the met office says more than half of the uk's oldest weather stations recorded their hottest day during the heatwave, so extreme it was virtually impossible without human—induced climate change. it was europe's hottest summer, with spain enduring multiple heatwaves, including its most intense on record. in france, rivers dried up in the country's worst drought on record and the scale of the drought that spread across europe was said to be the worst in 500 years. a crippling water shortage across parts of asia too, including here in china after its worst heatwave on record. and for the first time, japan hit a0 degrees in the month ofjune during its second hottest summer which was then followed by its warmest autumn. but the most haunting image from that hot summer is of spanish farmer angel martin arjona,

hailed as a hero as he used his bulldozer to dig a trench to stop a fire from spreading. although he escaped the flames alive, he suffered severe burns and tragically died from his injuries in october. figures show the number of excess deaths reported during the heatwaves in spain, france, germany and the uk numbered more than 20,000. raf coningsby is home to front line combat—ready squadrons protecting uk airspace whatever the weather, so it's crucial they get the most accurate forecast. so here we are in the met office forecast office. it's 20 years since i've been in this particular room. it has changed a little bit. in the chair where i used to once sit is our forecaster today, alice summerfield. you were here on that day back injuly when we saw the temperature of 40.3 celsius recorded here in coningsby. what was it like to see that here? it was something that was never expected in the uk.

and here at coningsby it was even more incredible and remarkable because our previous max temperature was nowhere near, i think we beat it by about 5.5 degrees on that day, so it was extreme for the uk as a whole and even more extreme for the local area. at what point did you realise that coningsby was going to be the hottest place ever recorded in the uk? it has to go through quite vigorous quality control before we actually officially get the record, so obviously by the evening, we were pretty sure no one was going to beat us, beat that 40.3 record, but we actually were not officially holding the uk record until a few days later when they came and did the quality control on the obs equipment outside. as a forecaster, i did not think i would see 40 celsius this soon here in the uk. do you think we will see that again anytime soon? we know it is possible to reach that, so it definitely can happen again and it is something that is going to be increasingly likely with the effects of climate change. looking out the window today, a big contrast to what we saw back then injuly.

it is misty and foggy at the moment. are they likely to be flying later? so, you see on the satellite picture here, this is the area of fog, so it's very widespread today. we are not really expecting it to clear until we get an air mass change, so for us, probably not until around midnight tonight. that may stop some flying but of course you have got the quick—reaction alert squadrons here and they have to be up in any weather? yes, so they will go regardless of the weather. we just have to tell them what the weather is doing at the time and they will still have to go because that is obviously operationally important. so that contact between the forecaster and also the squadrons and pilots is crucial, isn't it? yes. so we add value to the forecast that they could get off the website or from anywhere else by briefing

the pilots, so we show them the satellite images and the charts that are made elsewhere in hq and then we also make our own products and show them those as well. more to come from coningsby later when i will be talking to pilots of aircraft new and old about how heat and severe weather can affect operations here. that new record of 40.3 celsius at coningsby is a significant moment in weather history. but every temperature reading, every weather observation plays its part in our understanding of how our climate is changing and that is why i have come here, to the met office's national meteorological archive in exeter. it is home to daily uk weather reports from 1860 to the present day, among a vast collection of data that make up one of the most comprehensive collections on meteorology anywhere in the world. i am joined now by mike kendon, a climate information scientist here at the met office, and mike, we are amongst this huge collection of historical weather data. looking at some of these very oldest weather observations, thinking particularly about temperature, how is that used alongside our newest data to compare how our climate is changing? sure, it's a great

question, isn't it? when we look at these records here, these are from durham observatory back in 1890, and it can be quite difficult to read at times, but they were very systematic and careful. when we think about observations, we think about how they are used for weather forecasting, for the weather forecast we generate in the met office, there are observations coming in from a huge load of sources and of course observations are also very important to understand our climate and if we want to understand our climate of the future, the first step is we need to understand our climate now and we also need to understand our climate going back into the past. so we have got all of those standardised and scientifically robust observations, just like the 40.3 from coningsby earlier this year. how has that fed into models to create a bigger picture on a wider scale of what is happening to our climate? we calculate values across the whole of the uk and if we calculate an average of all those points, that can provide us with a uk statistic. these maps show long—term average, annual mean temperature for, on the left, 1961—1990,

and on the right, 1991 to 2020. comparing these two averaging periods is how the darker reds, the warmer areas, the areas have expanded across a larger extent of the map. between these two periods, the uk has warmed by roughly one degree. 2022 will go down in the history books, not only because it was the first time we broke that 40 celsius barrier, but also its likely to be the hottest year on record in the uk? we shouldn't necessarily be too surprised by that, because it follows the pattern of what we might expect as our climate warms. we expect more high temperature extremes of this type. so this is showing the uk average daily temperature over the course of the year. the black line in the middle shows the long—term average that we might typically expect. the areas in red show the times of year which have been warmer than average. the areas in blue show where it has been colder than average and what is immediately apparent

is that we have had so much more of the year which has been warmer than average compared to colder than average. just look at these spells through the year, through the summer and through the autumn in particular. the other thing i willjust point out is this huge spike in the observations injuly when we reached 40 celsius in the uk for the first time. thank you so much for now, mike. 2022 in the uk will notjust be remembered for extreme heat, it was stormy at times too. a lorry overturns in extreme winds in oxfordshire during storm eunice, the second and most powerful of three named storms to hit the uk in just one week in february. thankfully, the driver was not seriously hurt. falling trees caused damage and widespread travel disruption. gasping oh, my god! i caught that on video. and another weather record was set here on the coast of the isle of wight, a gust of 122 miles per hour

became the strongest ever recorded in england. and the uk recorded its coldest day since 2010. the worst weather disasters can often lead to a huge and global response and one of the biggest needs in 2022 followed those devastating floods in pakistan, and here in west london there is another batch of much—needed things waiting to go out there, food, toothpaste, sanitary products, we have already seen lots of tents and sleeping bags, all ready to go on a flight to pakistan to help those still homeless and trying to get through winter. thousands of people are still living in makeshift camps with no access to clean drinking water and fear of disease spreading in these conditions. the force of the floods was felt

as early as may when a glacial lake outburst led to this bridge collapse during a worsening pre—monsoon heatwave. by august, destruction was widespread. this new hotel was washed away within minutes. pakistan had its wettestjuly and august on record and the country's climate minister said a third of the country was under water. more than 1,000 people died and over half a million homes have been destroyed. joining me now is abdullah ali, one of the people who has been helping putting all of this aid together, and what is the ongoing need out there? because of course we are several months after the main flood, but loads of people are still homeless? at the moment there's loads of people that haven't got any houses or any shelter out there, so we need to gather tents, any shelter that can help them, tents, food items, and try to rebuild houses over there for them.

what do you feel about the response that you've had to get all of this stuff together for pakistan? it's absolutely amazing, the response we've received so far is absolutely phenomenal. i really appreciate from everyone that has been helping, especially all the donors and volunteers that come down, really appreciate it. i know you are particularly interested to try to get tax relief on this all of this stuff when it reaches pakistan? tell me about that. that is correct. at the moment we are getting tax and dutied over there for our containers and air shipments that are being sent out, so we are trying to do something that will waive that off, try and help as much as it can. it would be absolutely great. what does it make you feel like knowing that there has been this response? me personally, i feel really great because we are coming together as a community, like even muslims and non—muslim people have come together to donate stuff towards the people that are poor. well, good luck with all of your ongoing efforts to get that relief out there. thank you so much. 2022 has brought more shocking scenes of flash floods and landslides. here on the italian island of ischia

in november, during the night, mud surges towards the sea, taking everything with it after several days of intense downpours. in october, on the greek island of crete, cars were swept into the sea by a powerful flood that locals say caught them by surprise, also at night, after a day of rain. brazil endured rounds of severe storms that caused deadly flash flooding. this is the aftermath of a landslide that swept onto a motorway in early december and here in petropolis in february, over 200 people died in a catastrophic mudslide that followed several hours of torrential rain. still to come on weather world, the science behind storm surge, as hurricane ian wreaks havoc in florida. welcome back to raf coningsby. this base has a special place in my heart, because it is where i started forecasting and it is of course the place where the highest uk temperature ever was recorded this summer, 40.3 celsius. behind me are some of the typhoon

aircraft based at this station, but what sort of impact do the temperatures have on operations here? well, tojoin me to tell me more is the station commander group captain billy cooper. good to meet you, billy. let's first go back to that day injuly. record—breaking temperatures above 40 degrees. what sort of impact does that have on operations here at coningsby? so any extremes of weather and particularly temperature can have an effect even on very modern aircraft. in particular the performance of the engines, either at very high altitude or very high temperature. we find also the density of the fuel will change, so the way in which the maintainers operate with the aircraft can also be quite different. at coningsby you have the quick—reaction alert squadron who have to be up in the air at almost a moment's notice. what sort of weather impacts do they look out for? we have to be aware of what the weather conditions are, not only here at coningsby but across all of the uk and into europe as well,

so we'd be particularly concerned about thunderstorms, if any areas were particularly cloudy, which might make it very difficult for us to intercept any other aircraft. but it's notjust modern—day aircraft in operation here at coningsby, it's also home to the battle of britain memorial flight. these priceless artefacts are kept in airworthy condition and can be seen in the skies above all sorts of events over the summer months, keeping their rich history alive. and here we are in the hangar of the battle of britain memorial flight. behind me, just one of only two operational lancaster bombers in the entire world. it is here with other aircraft and in charge of them all is squadron leader mark sugden. thank you very much for having us here. it's an amazing, amazing site. we were with the station commander earlier chatting about typhoons, the technology involved in them. of course this is a historic aircraft. what sort of weather

requirements do you have? we fly national treasures and safety and preservation are at the forefront of what we do and weather plays a very big part of that. our planning before we go anywhere near the aeroplanes, it always starts with the weather and getting a really good understanding of what is out there, we fly around the country, we ask an awful lot of the met office. you know, i know they do not have a crystal ball and it's not an exact science, we know that, but like i say, our limits are far less than say a typhoon and we need to have a really good understanding of the weather before we take them flying. we had that record heat this summer. what sort of impact did that have on your operations? the engines create a huge amount of heat and certainly on the ground they get hot really quickly, which back in the �*405 was great. they were from the scramble bell going to being airborne quickly, you want the engine to get up to temperature, but for us, for example the aeroplane behind me, on a normal summer's day probably from starting the engine on the ground you have eight minutes before she'll overheat. with the temperatures we have been having this summer,

you can imagine that makes that problem even worse. back in the day, they were operational fighter planes, weren't they, and of course they had to fly in some pretty tricky conditions? exactly that, and you said, you know, the precise words were "they needed to", there was no choice for them. back in the 1940s, flying at night, flying in really challenging conditions, yes, we lost aircrew through no enemy action and just because of the weathers that they were having to fly in. well, they are stunning and as you said, national treasures to be looked after. they are. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you, matt. i am here at the uk's national meteorological archive looking at how weather data is collected and used to inform us about how our climate is changing. earlier i looked at temperature. now we're going to turn our attention to rainfall. mike, of course one of the most important types of weather data that is recorded is rainfall, but how do we record rainfall at specific sites and then interpret that to say for instance back on the 3rd of october 2020 it was the uk's wettest day on record? so we do monitor it carefully.

how do we take those observations? from a network of approximately 2,000 rain gauges across the uk, we interpolate these data onto a gridded data set covering the uk, and the result of that are products like this map that you can see here of rainfall on the 3rd of october 2020. this was the wettest day on record with 30.1 millimetres. that statistic is basically an average across the uk, but when we do the maths on that, 30.1 millimetres comes up as 7.6 cubic kilometres, which is approximately enough rain to fill loch ness, so quite a remarkable amount! once we have got that system for knowing just how much rain fell right across the uk, talk me through this one which goes back over 180 years. just how has rainfall changed in the uk over time? so this is a uk national rainfall series. there is a lot of natural variability in our weather from one year to another,

so this line is going up and down. what we have done is we have put a trend line through this data. you can see there are fluctuations in this data, but what we can see most apparent towards the end of the data is we can see this increase in rainfall and that is broadly as we expect, that as our climate gets warmer, it also gets wetter. and in 2022, the met office was able to extend the uk's official rainfall record back even further in time, an extra 26 years to 1836. that's after thousands of volunteers helped to digitise millions of handwritten rainfall observations in the extra spare time they had during the pandemic. all of this is bound for pakistan for the victims of that catastrophic flooding. just one of a number of weather—related disasters in 2022. another is drought in east africa,

a huge aid effort continues there as famine looms following four failed rainy seasons. but in west africa, the problem is too much rain and the worst floods in a decade in nigeria. declared an overwhelming disaster, the floods here killed more than 600 people and over 200,000 homes were destroyed. rainfall levels in the north and east of the country were estimated to have been up to 75% above normal. the european union has partnered with countries across west africa on fanfar, a project to improve flood warnings in the area. nigeria's flood agency says without its enhanced short—term forecasts, the devastation would have been even worse. october in australia, and yet more flooding rain. these scenes from the state of victoria, as the country went on to record its second wettest spring. a rare third consecutive la nina weather pattern produced deluge after deluge in the south—east of the country. and for sydney, a truly

remarkable year, its wettest in data going back to 1859, a record the city broke with nearly three months of the year still left. few places have been harder hit than lismore, one of the most flood—prone places in new south wales, but even here, the floods in february were the worst they'd known. we literally had water coming up from the ocean, water coming down from the catchment, and 800 millilitres of rain in about 24 hours landing on top of lismore, and it was literally the perfect storm. you know, there's no doubt that there is an issue with climate change. when it comes to tropical cyclones in 2022, super typhoon noru was one of the fastest—strengthening storms ever recorded in the pacific as it approached the philippines in september. good afternoon, everyone. we are coming on the air because hurricane ian i is about to make landfall.

in the usa, few hurricanes are as costly as ian, which hit florida in september, causing so much damage that losses are expected to exceed $50 billion. these scenes from fort myers show the scale of destruction from a storm tide as the fifth strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the usa. ian's most devastating impacts came from its storm surge. susan powell explains what a storm surge is and why they can be so damaging. when powerful hurricanes and typhoons hit the headlines, there is much focus on their wind speeds and categorisations. but for coastal areas, the biggest concern by far is storm surge. storm surge is known to be the biggest threat to life and livelihoods. storm surge is a rise in water level above normal tides generated by the storm. heights of over 8.5 metres, 28 feet, have been recorded.

how do storms produce this surge? a small part, only around 5% of the surge, comes from a fall in atmospheric pressure above the storm. relatively less pressure of the atmosphere pushing down lets water up well. the major driver by far, however, is wind. the stronger the winds, the more force that can be applied to the water surface and literally push up an increasingly large body of water. as storms approach landfall, where wind direction is onshore, the mass of water literally pushes inland. the opposite, however, can apply. where storm winds are offshore, a negative storm surge can suck water away from the coast. predicting surges is a complex process. storm intensity, forward speed, size and angle of approach all play a part, as does the shape of a coast. 2022 saw another united nations cop climate conference.

this one in egypt needed an extra second day to finally reach agreement on loss and damage, a pooled fund for countries most affected by climate change. i hear no objections, it is so decided. but that deal comes in a year when the world meteorological organisation says atmospheric concentrations of key greenhouse gases reached record levels. we are in the fight of our lives and we are losing. greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. global temperatures keep rising. and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. and finally, when there is too much snow and it is coming at you too quickly, this is one of 2022's luckiest escapes. an avalanche caught on camera and heading towards british hiker harry shimmin in kyrgyzstan injuly.

oh, my... he was on the edge of a cliff with no escape and his excitement at what initially seemed so far away turned to fear as the snow and ice surged towards him. 0h, deargod! snow was pouring over the top of me. for a second, itjust - carried on getting worse and that is when i did not reallyl know what was going to happen, which is probably, you know, a moment that i will not - forget too soon! and then itjust kind - of steadily turned into this weird kind of blizzard, _ i suppose from the air displacement or something, i'm not sure. but yeah, literally alljust blew over. i was not covered in more than a few i inches, so i was able tojust stand i up straight away and yeah, be grateful i was _ still there, really. that is it for weather world and our review of 2022, another of the world's top ten warmest years, and for the uk, one of the warmest.

that is what will go down on record here in the national meteorological archive. and of all the weather records here and globally, it is the hot ones that are overwhelmingly being broken the most often. from nick, mattand i, until next time, goodbye! it was a cold start to 2023 in parts of scotland, but milder further south and through much of this week it is going to be mild. there'll be some rain at times, but there will be some drier and chillier interludes as well.

through the rest of today, cloud thickening with some patchy rain into the far south of england, some showers elsewhere, some of which will be heavy and thundery and some rain in the north of scotland with some wintryness over the highest ground temperatures, 4 to 13 degrees north to south. and then through this evening and tonight, we'll see some rain pushing across the south east of england. elsewhere, a mix of clear spells, still one or two showers and some ice across northern england, northern ireland and scotland where it's going to be another really cold night and minus eight possible in the northern highlands and even further south, a chillier night than it was last night. tomorrow, though, decent sort of day, some good spells of sunshine around, some showers into the south east of england first thing, and then later into western scotland. some of those will be wintry, but a chilly feeling day, particularly in the south. highs of 3 to 9 degrees.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm shaun ley. our top stories: pope francis pays tribute to his predecessor, benedict, as a "faithful servant of the gospel and the church". three, two, one... celebrations have taken place around the world to herald the start of 2023. as russian missiles strike kyiv, a former war crimes prosecutor calls for vladimir putin to be tried this year for crimes against humanity. and brazil's new left—wing president, luiz inacio lula da silva, is to be sworn into office in a few hours, 20 years after he first led the country.