WEIRD STUFF

Scientist warns humanity facing doom

A top meteorologist is warning humanity faces "absolute extinction" if fossil fuel use is not urgently reduced.

Citing accelerating climate instability and rising global temperatures as huge risks to Earth's population, Jim Dale, a meteorological expert at British Weather Services, issued the alert following new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which found the Earth's climate system is now more imbalanced than at any point in recorded history. According to the United Nations agency, 2025 ranked among the three hottest years on record, with global average temperatures reaching approximately 1.43degC above the pre-industrial baseline.

Scientists say this brings the world closer to breaching the critical 1.5degC threshold, beyond which increasingly severe climate impacts are expected.

The report also highlighted record concentrations of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, driven largely by continued fossil fuel use.

Dale told the Daily Mirror: "The big story is what the WMO has come out with, which is the world's energy imbalance, and temperatures at the highest for 125,000 years; particularly ocean temperatures.

"That points to extinction. And I don't say that lightly. I say it in absolute terms. I'm saying, if things continue unabated as they are, then we are facing, as a human race, potential extinction."

Brits turn storm-naming into comedy show

Elon Gust and Dame Judi Drench are among a wave of unusual and humorous names submitted by the public for future UK storms.

According to information released by the Met Office, Britain's national weather service, theyare showing how members of the public have continued to engage with the annual storm-naming process introduced in 2015.

Each year, thousands of names are put forward, though only around 20 are ultimately selected for official use.

A Freedom of Information request has shown for the 2025--2026 storm season, more than 50,000 suggestions were submitted, ranging from serious entries to playful puns.

The final list - agreed jointly by forecasters in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands - now includes names such as Amy, Bram, Chandra, Dave, Eddie, Fionnuala, Gerard, Hannah, Isla, Janna, Kasia, Lilith, Marty, Nico, Oscar, Patrick, Ruby, Stevie, Tadhg, Violet and Wubbo.

A Met Office forecaster told Sky News: "Some of the names are really clever and funny and we enjoy seeing them suggested."

They added: "However, we couldn't ever use comedy names for our storms, because, at the heart of it, naming storms has an important safety purpose."