Daytime temperature	UK10.3ºC 0.8ºC above average England 10.7ºC 0.6ºC above average Wales 10.4ºC 0.6ºC above average Northern Ireland 11.0ºC 1.5ºC above average Scotland 9.4ºC 1.3ºC above average
Rainfall	UK 63mm, 56% of average Driest since 1985 England 45.7mm, 59% of average Driest since 1985 Wales 60.7mm, 42% of average Driest since 1978 Northern Ireland 65mm, 57% of average Scotland   92mm, 58% of average
Sunshine	UK 106.0 hours, 120% of average England 112.4 hours, 115% of average Wales 107.4 hours, 121% of average Northern Ireland 103.8hours,  126% of average Sunniest since 1987 Scotland 95.2 hours, 129% of average

Storm surge in East Anglia

East Anglia woke on Saturday November 10th in the knowledge that the worst high seas for more than 50 years were heading for shore. Sandbags had been filled, makeshift barricades erected and thousands of homes evacuated as a tidal surge approached. But the peak of the conditions caused by a combination of gale-force winds in the North Sea and a high tide which battered the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk left only minor damage. In Norfolk hundreds spent the night in temporary accommodation in schools and leisure centres, while others moved further inland to stay with family and friends.

In parts of the region, waters rose above 9ft - the highest mark since the 1953 floods, which killed more than 300 people. There was localised flooding in Norfolk and Suffolk, but no major defences were breached.

Lincolnshire, the Humber, the north-east of England, and Kent escaped trouble. In London the Thames barrier and the Queensborough and Dartford Creek barriers were operated.

One of the worst hit coastal villages was Walcott in Norfolk, where 12ft waves breached the sea wall, smashed conservatories and holiday accommodation, and blew caravans and boats across the coast road.
In Great Yarmouth there was only localised flooding. Fire crews used dinghies to rescue 30 people from sheltered accommodation in Lowestoft, Suffolk. A total of 700 people were evacuated in the coastal town.

Experts had feared that tidal waves would rise by 3m, breaching sea defences and flooding thousands of homes. In the event, levels peaked at around 20 cm lower.

Wild fires in California

The wildfires that swept through southern California affected more than 1,700 square km. The fires began on October 21st. The Santa Ana winds, which whip dry air from the desert plateau westwards and downwards into southern California, heating up as they descend, were blowing uncommonly fast. Before long, fires were blazing uncontrollably in seven counties. Perhaps as many as a million people have been forced to flee their homes. At least 14 people died in the flames, and five more died during the mass evacuation.

At least 1,500 homes have been turned to cinders. The director of San Diego county's emergency services guesses that the damage will exceed $1 billion.

But why were the fires so destructive? California has always had fires during dry years, at least since the time of the Spaniards. Recent ones have caused more damage than those 30 years ago, because the population has grown and many more Californians have moved out of city centres and built big homes surrounded by foliage.

Up to 750,000 people were forced to leave their homes as the fires took hold in an area stretching from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. As evacuees began to return to their homes, state government officials estimated the cost of the fire to be $1bn (£500m), and as many as 1,500 homes are thought to have been destroyed.

Air quality plummeted as winds of up to 90mph deposited ash and soot across the area. Low brown clouds darkened the skies. Power lines brought down by the high winds were thought to be responsible for sparking the fires. The fires stretched from Tecate on the Mexican border to Santa Barbara county, almost 200 miles to the north. Some 40,000 were burnt.

The brush fires are an annual event in southern California, fuelled by the Santa Ana desert winds. The Santa Anas carry warm air from the desert to the coast, drying out the land as they pass and spreading the fires. Despite recent rains, southern California, like the entire western US, is experiencing a severe drought.

In Orange County and the San Diego area, where perhaps half a million people were evacuated, there were claims that insufficient resources were available to firefighters.

The charred remains of six people were discovered in California as thousands of evacuees started returning home after what was been described as the most devastating wildfires in the state's history. Four of the victims were found yesterday afternoon in scorched woodland along the Mexican border south-east of San Diego. The area is near a key corridor for illegal immigrants coming from Mexico.

The fires have destroyed 1,500 homes, displaced half a million people and caused damage worth an estimated $1bn. Five people in San Diego, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties have been arrested on suspicion of arson, although the police said none had been linked to any of the major fires.

The fires also disrupted the lives of those ordinarily insulated from natural disaster by their wealth and connections. Many Hollywood celebrities maintain second homes in the Malibu area.

A boy playing with matches caused a fire that went on to burn 15,000 hectares (38,000 acres) and destroy 21 homes, one of 23 blazes that swept through California last week leaving a trail of destruction. According to officials, the boy accidentally lit what became known as the Buckweed fire near the city of Agua Dulce, north-east of Los Angeles. Nearly 800 square miles were burned and 1,600 homes destroyed.

Fires in numbers

Flames spread across 800 sq miles (2,072 sq km), fanned by Santa Ana winds gusting at 100mph(161kph)
8,000 firefighters tackled the blaze

500,000 people fled from their homes

10,000 people took shelter in the San Diego football stadium

2,000 buildings were destroyed.

12 people have died

More than 60 people have been injured

Drought in the USA

After 18 months of sunny skies and scorching heat, crops are shrivelling and lakes are drying up. This is the normally lush south-east of the USA. 32% of the region is in ‘exceptional drought,’ the most severe designation and one expected on this scale only once or twice a century. The problem is exacerbated by the south-east's inexperience with lack of rain, and by the area's booming population.

In Atlanta, the largest metropolitan area in the south-east, 3m residents will lose their main source of drinking water by January if the level of nearby Lake Lanier continues to drop.

Outdoor watering bans already cover the affected part of the state, and local governments are considering rationing. Atlanta's mayor has suggested desalinating sea water from the Atlantic Ocean. Stone Mountain Park, Atlanta's popular theme park, has ceased making artificial snow for its Coca-Cola Snow Mountain.
The problems are widespread. In Tennessee, hydroelectric power production within the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the government agency that generates electricity for seven south-eastern states, has been halved because of low water supplies. The first five months of this year was the driest such period in the valley in its 118 years of record-keeping, the authority said.

Even Florida, regularly battered by hurricanes and tropical storms that can dump up to 1.3 metres of rain annually, is drying out. Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest fresh-water lake in the country, is showing dry patches from lack of rain.

Agricultural economists say the drought is costing billions of dollars, with farmers in dire financial straits unless they had the foresight to buy federal crop insurance. In Georgia officials say the drought so far has caused $787m in lost production - primarily in hay, cotton, peanuts and maize.

Flooding in Mexico

The worst floods in at least half a century have affected southern Mexico with almost a million people affected. The crisis in Tabasco state has been described by the Mexican president as ‘one of the worst disasters in the history of the country’.

The floods directly affected 900,000 people. Half a million had been made homeless. The state capital, Villahermosa, was among the worst hit areas. The city is built in a kind of bowl below sea level, prompting comparisons with New Orleans. The Grijalva river that borders the city overflowed a huge sandbag dyke erected by soldiers and volunteers after the flooding began.

Most media attention has focused on Villahermosa, but with most of the state inundated officials were warning of dire conditions in the countryside too. The flooding followed 10 days of heavy rain that swelled the many rivers flowing through this low-lying tropical state on the Gulf of Mexico.

The flood crisis in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco continued causing shelters to be full to bursting. Villahermosa remained several metres under water. Rumours circulated that crocodiles were prowling the murky floodwaters.

Rescue workers said it was difficult to reach flood victims because of a boat shortage, and there were few dry areas where helicopters could land. The official death toll rose to eight

Plans to become the world’s greenest island

The Isle of Wight's natural resources could be harnessed as part of a plan to make it the world's largest eco island. Plans are set to be announced to run the island entirely on renewable energy, develop tidal power to export to the mainland, harness the waste of its 5,500 cows to run its buses, and encourage people to leave their cars on the mainland. It is believed to have the most powerful tides in the UK after the Severn estuary, and could provide as much power as several stations if it was better connected to the national grid.

Carbon output rising faster than forecast

Scientists have warned that global warming will be ‘stronger than expected and sooner than expected’, after a new analysis showed carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than predicted. The rise was down to soaring economic development in China, and a reduction in the amount of carbon pollution soaked up by the world's land and oceans. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has accelerated since 2000.

Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning have risen by an average 2.9% each year since 2000. During the 1990s the annual rise was 0.7%. Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is measured in parts per million (ppm); from 1970 to 2000, the concentration rose by about 1.5ppm each year; since 2000 the annual rise has leapt to an average 1.9ppm.

Cement production and global warming

The cement industry produces more than 5% of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions. The industry is rapidly emerging as a major obstacle on the world's path to a low-carbon economy.

No company will make carbon-neutral cement any time soon. The manufacturing process depends on burning vast amounts of cheap coal to heat kilns to more than 1,500C. It also relies on the decomposition of limestone, a chemical change which frees carbon dioxide as a by-product. So as demand for cement grows, for sewers, schools and hospitals as well as for luxury hotels and car parks, so will greenhouse gas emissions. Cement plants and factories across the world are projected to churn out almost 5bn tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by 2050 - 20 times as much as the government has pledged the entire UK will produce by that time.

Cement is needed to satisfy basic human needs, and there is no obvious substitute, so there is a trade-off between development and sustainability.

Concrete is the second most used product on the planet, after water, and almost half of it is produced in China. The booming Chinese economy has created such a demand for building materials that cement production there last year released 540m tonnes of carbon dioxide - just short of Britain's total output from all sources. Cement's weight and low value mean it is almost always made close to where it is needed. The increase in cement and concrete production in China has helped it overtake the USA as the world’s leading polluter.

US edges towards cap on greenhouse gases

The US has taken first step towards mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions. A vote in a Senate subcommittee marks the first US move towards European-style policies. The proposed legislation would set a target of a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, compared with the 20% reduction that is the goal in the EU.

Warming could wipe out half of all species

Rising global temperatures caused by climate change could trigger a huge extinction of plants and animals. Half of the world's species could be wiped out. Scientists have examined the relationship between climate and biodiversity over the past 520m years - almost the entire fossil record - and uncovered an association between the two for the first time. When the Earth's temperatures are in a ‘greenhouse’ climate phase, they found that extinctions rates were relatively high. Conversely, during cooler ‘icehouse’ conditions, biodiversity increased.

The largest ever extinction occurred 251m years ago, when 95% of animal and plant species were killed off. The most likely cause was floods of lava erupting from the central Atlantic region - an event that triggered the opening of the Atlantic Ocean.

Good news for wind turbine manufacturers

Vetas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, has reported a near quadrupling of pre-tax profits after soaring demand and higher prices triggered by a renewable energy boom in Britain, the USA and China.

Emissions cuts not enough

Green campaigners and opposition politicians rounded on the government for not imposing tighter limits on carbon emissions in its amendment of the climate change bill. The environment secretary said the bill would retain the requirement for a 60% cut in CO2 emissions by 2050, but would not include pollution from the aviation and shipping industries.

Half of UK's top firms fail to publish plans to cut carbon emissions

Only 48 of the top 100 companies trading on the UK stock exchange have published a plan to address and reduce their carbon emissions and a significant minority refuse even to reveal their carbon footprint. If we are to move towards 80% cuts in carbon dioxide by 2050 then we need all companies to engage on this issue at boardroom level.

The sustainable development charity Forum for the Future analyses the carbon footprints of the top 10 global companies, which between them emit the same amount of carbon dioxide a year as the entire UK. ExxonMobil has the highest emissions in the group, equivalent to the annual discharge from Saudi Arabia. Five of the 10 - Exxon, DaimlerChrysler, Chevron, Total and ConocoPhillips - do not appear to have published targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

More planes and trains for the UK

Britain's road, rail and air networks can all be greatly expanded without undermining a commitment to reducing climate change emissions, a government report has said. The discussion paper says that a new generation of cars, improved fuels, and renewable energy to drive electric vehicles could eventually almost completely ‘decarbonise’ the road transport economy.

More contentiously, it argues that airport expansions in south-east England should go ahead and that aircraft emissions could effectively be held at 2004-05 levels with the European emissions trading scheme. The paper recognises that shipping emissions are a growing issue but says Britain is working with others to see how ship technologies could be improved. Major improvements of ports at Felixstowe, Bathside Bay at Harwich, and London Gateway will be able to take all but the very largest container ships.

Australia’s farmers - an inaccurate weather forecast brings disaster for many

Australia is one of the world's biggest wheat exporters. In September, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, a government research agency, cut its forecast of Australia's wheat production this year to 15.5m tonnes, one-third below its June forecast. The failure of crucial spring rains since then means production is likely to be even less.

The farming crisis is so bad that the federal government in late September announced A$1.1 billion ($1 billion) in drought aid. It included payments of $150,000 each to the most debt-ridden of Australia's 130,000 farmers to leave their land. Yet the drought, which has driven farmers to despair, and some to suicide, is now pushing up food prices in suburban supermarkets. Its impact cut three-quarters of a percentage point off Australia's growth rate in 2006-07.

Ozone hole over Chile

Another environmental problem, the emergence of a hole in the ozone layer, has affected residents of Punta Arenas in Chile. In Punta Arenas, residents have to cope with radiation alerts when ozone depletion is so severe that it becomes highly dangerous to expose skin or eyes to the sun

Melting in Antarctica

Two bits of Antarctica are heating up rapidly. The peninsula that juts out of the continent is warming as fast as anywhere: three degrees Centigrade in the past 50 years. And in Pine Island Bay two giant glaciers are shrinking, and this process is accelerating. Of the global sea-level rise that is already taking place (about 3 millimetres per year since 1990, compared with an average of less than 2mm before 1990), about one sixth may be the result of melting from two smallish parts of Antarctica.

Spain shown perils of climate change

A book, Photoclima, launched by Greenpeace shows images of how some of Spain's most famous places might look like in the future. Greenpeace hopes to scare Spain into taking action. For example, the Ebro river in Zaragoza is a dried-up riverbed in 2070, and the fields of Valencia, which have provided Spain with oranges for centuries, will have all but disappeared. Perhaps the most dramatic image is that of La Manga de Mar Menor in Murcia, where hotels and apartment blocks abut the Mediterranean. In a few decades most of this will be underwater. The intention of the book was not to use ‘scientific rigour’ but to ‘create alarm and a call to action’.

Increase of malaria in South America

In Peru, malaria was almost eradicated 40 years ago, but this year 64,000 cases have been registered in the country, half in the Amazon region. Climate change and deforestation are behind the return of malaria in the Peruvian Amazon.

Off-season rain is altering the pattern of mosquito development, leaving puddles containing the lethal larvae in areas where malaria had been nonexistent. Deforestation is having a similar effect, forcing the mosquito to move to new areas and spreading the disease to places where people are not aware of the disease.

Tougher new drought rules to be unveiled?

Bans on the use of hosepipes will be widened to include pressure hoses for cleaning boats and patios. The current rules, introduced 62 years ago, have created an ‘inconsistent and illogical’ situation.

If the new system is approved by parliament, water companies in England and Wales will be able to impose discretionary bans from spring next year.

Water companies could stop you:

· Using ornamental water features
· Watering your garden with a hose
· Filling up your hot tub
· Using a pressure hose on a patio
But you would still be able to:

· Keep your fish pond topped up
· Use a watering can in the garden
· Clean windows with a bucket
· Hose down your boat - if you use it for business

Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages set in

Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India. Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive. The price rises are a result of record oil prices, US farmers switching out of cereals to grow biofuel crops, extreme weather and growing demand from countries India and China.

Big food companies accused of risking climate catastrophe

Many of the largest food and fuel companies risk climate change disaster by driving the demand for palm oil and biofuels grown on the world's greatest peat deposits. Many food companies are large users of Indonesian palm oil, much of which comes from the province of Riau in Sumatra, where an estimated 14.6bn tonnes of carbon - equivalent to nearly one year's entire global carbon emissions - is locked up in the world's deepest peat beds.

More than 1.4m hectares of virgin forest in Riau has already been converted to plantations to provide cooking oil, but a further 3m hectares is planned to be turned to biofuels. Carbon is released when virgin forests are felled and the swampy peatlands are drained to provide plantation land. The peat decomposes and is broken down by bacteria and the land becomes vulnerable to fires which often smoulder and release greenhouse gases for decades.

If the peatlands continue to be destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations, this will significantly add to global climate change emissions. Nearly half of Indonesia's 22m hectares of peatland has already been cleared and drained, resulting in it having the third-highest man-made carbon emissions, after the US and China. Destruction of its peatlands already accounts for nearly 4% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

The peat soils of Riau, which are eight metres deep in areas, have the highest concentration of carbon stored per hectare anywhere in the world. This huge store is at risk from drainage, clearance and fire. The area of peatland is relatively small, but destroying it would be the equivalent of releasing five years' emissions from all the world's coal and gas power stations.

Riau's plantations already provide 40% of all Indonesia's palm oil. The Indonesian plantations provide oil used in global brands like Flora margarine, Pringles, KitKat, Cadbury's Flake and Philadelphia cream cheese, feed a rising global demand for cheap vegetable oil used in producing food, cosmetics and, increasingly, vehicle fuel. Demand for palm oil as a cooking oil is predicted to double within 25 years and triple by 2050.

Retail companies and food manufacturers have virtually no way of tracing where the palm oil they use comes from. Meeting European demand for palm oil alone would require nearly 60,000 square miles of plantations, says the report. Europe expects biofuels to make up 10% of all its transport fuel by 2010, China 20% by 2012, India 20% by 2012, and the US 10% by 2020.

German car lobby angry at plan to limit autobahn speeds

The tradition of having no speed limit on Germany's autobahns is under threat. The Social Democrats,   say the introduction of a speed limit would reduce both CO2 emissions and the accident rate.

More than half of Germany's 7,600-mile autobahn network has no speed limit, and environmentalists have welcomed the idea of imposing a top speed of 130 kilometres per hour (80mph). A limit of 120 or 130kph could reduce CO2 emissions by 9% or more.
World speed limits

France, Italy, Austria 130kph (80mph)
Spain 120kph (75mph)
Cyprus 100kph (62mph)
UK 112kph (70mph)
US 90-110kph (55-68mph)
Norway 90-100kph (55-62mph)
Isle of Man None

· Source: EUROPA, Travelling in Europe (2007)