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Two aircraft have flown over an oil drilling ship that ran aground in a severe Alaskan storm and saw no sign that the vessel was leaking fuel or that its hull had been breached.
The Royal Dutch Shell ship, the Kulluk, which was used in the Arctic last summer, ran aground on Monday on a sand and gravel shore off an uninhabited island near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The ship appeared stable, according to US federal on-scene response co-ordinator Captain Paul Mehler.
Hours of rain continued across much of the country on New Year's Eve, from downpours in some parts to the merely miserable, meaning that as 2012 ended, Britain was on course for the wettest year since records began.
The Met Office said just 46mm (1.8in) of rain by midnight would make this year the wettest – and six steady hours of rain in some places should have ensured that. England, which had drought orders in place in many areas in the spring, has already set a record, with 1,095.8mm of rain between 1 January and Boxing Day.
Parts of upland Cumbria, south Wales and south-west England saw torrential overnight rain, raising the likelihood of further flooding. Hundreds of Environment Agency flood alerts and warnings remain in place, and the Met Office has issued yellow warnings of more heavy rain and gales in many parts of Scotland, the north-east of England, London and the south-east, and Wales.
Global temperatures are forecast to be 0.57C above the long-term average next year, making 2013 one of the warmest years on record, the Met Office said on Thursday.
"It is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest 10 years in the record which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012," it said in its annual forecast for the coming year.
Next year was expected to be between 0.43 and 0.71C warmer than the long-term global average of 14 degrees (1961-1990), with a best estimate of around 0.57C, it said.
Parts of the UK are braced for threatened further flooding as successive bands of heavy rain move across the country.
The Environment Agency (EA) said large swathes of southern and south-western England, south-east Wales and the Midlands may be threatened on Thursday.
Flood warnings are in place in the south-west, the south-east and east Anglia.
The UK's sealife will be protected by 31 new conservation zones aimed at preventing trawling and dredging destroying life on the ocean floor, under plans announced by the government on Thursday. But ministers rejected advice to create 127 zones, including all the areas where no activity would have been allowed, leading campaigners to describe the plan as "pitiful" and a "bitter disappointment".
"The UK has one of the world's richest marine environments, and we need to make sure it stays that way," said environment minister Richard Benyon. "We have to get this right. Designating the right sites in the right places, so that our seas are sustainable, productive and healthy, and to ensure that the right balance is struck between conservation and industry."