creatures grew so big or how they came to die out, but their size and their success for millions of years puts our own existence into sharp perspective. rebecca morelle, bbc news. now it s the weather with darren bett. we had more rain today but at least it is a little bit warmer. temperatures in northern ireland reached 16 degrees today and it s actually a bit warmer than normal for the time of year across many western parts of europe. in south west france temperatures were topping 30 degrees. of course it will not last and as we change month we will change the weather. it will turn cooler across many western parts of europe but it should also be turning drier at the same time. looking at the rain we had over the past few hours, this is continuing to push across scotland. heavy rain developing across england and wales. a bit further north now. that rain will tend to slide away into the north sea but we will keep some patchy rain going across northern england. 0therwise turni
and then firing $100,000 missiles to shoot them down, which seems to be the only available option. yeah, even the highest flying militaryjets, things like the f 22 or the british typhoon, which can operate significantly above 50,000 feet, which is typically where fast jets tend to stop in terms of going higher, f 22, typhoon can operate up to 60,000 feet or even a little above. it s tricky being up there. there are considerations around pilot life support and pressurisation of the cockpit. typically, aircraft are designed to operate at really extreme altitudes above that, like the u 2 spy plane or the 71 or the 71 blackbird, again, spy plane. crews would wear kind of spacesuits, full pressure suits, and mostjet fighters aren t equipped for that. also, where there have been previous examples of weather balloons, for example, or surveillance balloons from the us side that have kind of got lost or cables have
a degree of political consideration applied to this. after all, the united kingdom is not the united states. we re not a global superpower. but with this increased vigilance, could we see countries shooting down more objects which pose no threat? yeah, it is difficult, especially because a lot of more kind of amateur type balloons that are floating around may not have filed any flight plans or got any permission. and so there may be very little awareness of exactly what s up there, most of which is entirely harmless. it does pose a challenge, doesn t it, because you ve gotjets flying up to try and look and see what they are, which sounds like it s quite difficult for them, and then firing $400,000 missiles to shoot them down, which seems to be the only available option. yeah, even the highest flying militaryjets, things like the f 22 or the british typhoon,