Wet and windy

Normally, BBC tv newsreaders warn of us disturbing pictures. Last night, in the 6pm news, the world's greatest living foreign correspondent, John Simpson, suddenly loomed out of the darkness of his Thai holiday (once it had stopped raining) to tell of us storms on the island of Koh Samui.

It turns out the enterprise was a family effort, with wife and son involved. Thankfully, by 10pm, it was back to agency pictures.

I never thought when my wife Dee gave us a quick holiday in Koh Samui that I'd appear from there on tonight's @BBCNews about superstorm Pabok. I've seen monsoons in India & storms in the Congo but I've never seen rain like this. Dee filmed it on her iPhone, Rafe did the lighting.

— John Simpson (@JohnSimpsonNews) January 4, 2019