Experts take the surprise out of UK weather

The UK's weather experts, the Met Office, have announced they can predict winter weather a year in advance. It put weather information going back to 1981 into its GBP 97m supercomputer to find out whether it could accurately predict winters in advance. 

In many countries predicting weather a year ahead would not be very unusual, but in the UK, it is hard to do this.

This is because in the winter, our weather is decided by something called the NAO. This decides whether we get a windy, rainy winter or a cold dry winter, and is affected by air pressure north and south of the UK.

Olympic stars get heroes welcome

Around 400 athletes from the UK's OIympic and Paralympic teams went on a special parade in the city of Manchester this week. They showed the 214 medals they won, the most ever for the UK. 

It rained but that did not stop thousands of people lining the streets to cheer the athletes. They included heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, who has just announced her retirement from the sport after winning gold in London and silver in Rio.

Lobster telephone for sale

Salvador Dali created some of the 20th century's best-known art. This included sofas shaped like the lips of actress Mae West, and telephones where you speak into a lobster.

These are among 200 works of art being sold in London in December, to raise money to create a permanent museum for other work by Dali. It is likely to raise up to GBP 2.5 million.

1066 battle fought again

1066 is one of the biggest dates in UK history. That year, England changed when King Harold lost a battle against Duke William, a Norman (from France) in a dispute over who should be King. King Harold died after being hit in the eye with an arrow, and William became king. The legal system and government changed, and so did our language as William and his followers spoke French. 

Last weekend was the 950th anniversary of the battle. Over 1000 people recreated the battle, in full costume and with traditional weapons. They were watched by over 16,000 spectators. Watch what happened in this video of the day.