With the UK suffering the worst band of winter storms in more than 20 years, the Environment Agency has been forced to issue flood warnings in every single region across England and Wales.

The agency currently has around 350 alerts in place across the country as a whole, including three severe warnings which indicate there is a "danger to life".

Last night a flood siren warning of extreme danger to people and property was sounded in Dorset, as gales and tidal surges battered the coast.

The Environment Agency raised the alarm after its sea defences were breached at Chiswell Beach in Portland last night, following on from a severe flood warning in the area.

Record heatwaves and wildfires, widespread and severe flooding, massive sinkholes swallowing buildings and people, mass animal deaths, an asteroid exploding over Russia, thousands more fireballs lighting up the sky throughout the year, record-breaking blizzards snowfall, the coldest northern spring in 100 years, massive landslides, 'rare' tornadoes occurring in places they shouldn't, the widest tornado ever observed, more volcanic eruptions, more major earthquakes forming new islands, the strongest tropical storm in recorded history, successive hurricanes in Europe, the coldest temperature ever recorded, snow in Cairo... these are signs of climate change, aka Earth Changes.

Welcome to the new normal.

• Couple swept out to sea in walking along rocks near the town of Biarritz

• The woman is still missing and rescuers are searching for her

• The man was in the sea for 20 minutes before being rescued

A video has captured the horrifying moment a couple were swept out to sea after a huge wave to crashed down on them as they walked along a coastal path.

The pair were walking along the treacherous sea front on Sunday near the town of Biarritz, south west France at the weekend when they were dragged out to sea.

The man was in the water for 20 minutes before he was saved, but rescuers have been unable to find the woman who is in her thirties.

Fierce storms have broken down flood defence systems, battered coastal towns and destroyed part of a centuries-old landmark rock formation in Cornwall.

The natural rock formation in Porthcothan Bay, Newquay was battered by 30ft waves and 70mph winds, causing most of the doughnut-shaped archway to break away into the sea.

Local resident Tamsin Swindells told the Western Morning News the beach "just won't be the same without it", adding that the area "looked like a demolition site" now.

The damage came as some of the worst winter storms to hit Britain in 20 years shattered various harbours and coastal areas.

More flooding is expected across the country today and tomorrow as the west coast counted its losses following the arrival of "Winter Storm Hercules", the system which has left behind a record-breaking deep freeze in the US.

Last night a flood siren warning of extreme danger to people and property was sounded in Dorset, as gales and tidal surges battered the coast.

The Environment Agency raised the alarm after its sea defences were breached at Chiswell Beach in Portland last night, following on from a severe flood warning in the area.

JetBlue has halted flights to and from Boston, New York City and Newark to allow them to get flights back on track.

Beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, JetBlue reduced operations at Boston's Logan Airport, New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports and New Jersey's Newark Airport.

The shutdown affects 300 JetBlue flights at the four airports.

By 5 p.m., all flights were shut down and will remained stopped until 10 a.m. Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, flights will gradually ramp up again, the company said in a statement.

The wind chill hit 40 degrees below zero Monday morning at O'Hare Airport, and the extreme cold is expected to stick around for the next couple of days, meteorologists said.

At midnight, the temperature at O'Hare was 3 degrees below zero, which is the warmest temperature the city is likely to see throughout the entire day, National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Friedlein said.

A temperature of 16 degrees below zero was measured at O'Hare Airport later in the morning, breaking the record of 14 below zero set twice in 1884 and 1988 on Jan. 6, according to the National Weather Service.

That's colder than the South Pole in Antarctica, where the temperature was recorded at 11 degrees below zero at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station before 8 a.m. It was also colder than Novosibirsk, a city in southwest Siberia, which was 6 degrees below zero, according to the Weather Channel.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Chicago by the National Weather Service was 27 degrees below zero on Jan. 20, 1985.

Over $500 million in damage already caused by floods and high winds

The latest storms to hit Ireland will cost the economy almost half a billion dollars - with more on the way over the weekend.

Record tides and devastating flood and gales lashed the country on Friday with Ireland's weather forecast service warning of a repeat on Sunday.

Experts have branded the freakish winds and rain as the worst series of storms to hit the country in over 15 years.

And economists have warned that the price of home insurance will increase after estimating the current damage at over $500million.

Galway and Cork were worst hit with flooding while the River Liffey in Dublin also reached record levels.

Experts have warned that Friday's freezing temperatures were simply a warm-up and that this weekend will bring a big chill for 140 million people - almost half the nation - that could prove fatal for the unprepared - and will continue through the winter.

With the Northeast still reeling from the huge storm that dumped as much as two-feet of snow across the region and was responsible for the deaths of 13 people, a new weather system is threatening to bring record low temperatures to the Midwest as a polar vortex barrels over the United States.

'It's the mother lode of cold air,' said Weather Channel coordinating meteorologist Tom Moore. 'On the heels of what will be the coldest air of the season, will be dangerous, life-threatening winds.'

The temperature predictions are startling: 25 below zero in Fargo, North Dakota, minus 31 in International Falls, Minnesota, and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago.

Moore said that as the freakishly cold weather hits the region, authorities need to act fast to avoid a human catastrophe because of the chill. 'Anybody living out on the streets needs to be rounded up and put into a shelter,' said Moore to MSNBC News. 'The repercussions for not could be deadly, and I'm afraid we're going to see cases like that.'

The temperature predictions are startling: 25 below zero in Fargo, North Dakota, minus 31 in International Falls, Minnesota, and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago. The so-called 'polar vortex' will send cold air piled up at the North Pole down to the U.S., funneling it as far south as the Gulf Coast.

Weather expert Andrew Freeman of Climate Central explains that the rarity is 'an area of cold low pressure that typically circulates around the Arctic during the winter, spreading tentacles of cold southward into Europe, Asia, and North America at times. Except this time, it's not a small section of the vortex'.

Additional images

Antony Frampton and his colleagues at the Environment Agency have rebuilt the mile-long shingle sea defence of Weymouth beach esplanade every day during the stormy weather over the past fortnight, with the exception of Christmas Day.

The team was hard at work again on Friday, as The Independent visited the Dorset town that is currently taking a hammering.

"The sea defence gets eroded overnight and so we rebuild it the next day," said Mr Frampton, before hopping into one of several Environment Agency diggers along the front and once again rebuilding the shingle wall that had been demolished the previous evening by the powerful gales and onslaught of heavy rain.

"We want to keep the shingle at a certain width so waves don't go over the wall and close the beach road," he said - although the road had been forced to close earlier that morning after flooding, and was due to close again last night as a precaution against the expected storm surge.

French officials severely under-estimated the danger posed by storms that battered large parts of the country over Christmas, interior minister Manuel Valls has admitted.

On a visit to Brittany - the region worst affected by Storm Dirk - Valls recognised that an "error" had been made in forecasting and preparing for the bad weather.

Tens of thousands of homes were left without power over the festive period as fierce winds brought down by power lines and rivers flooded.

Valls has ordered préfets to assess the full extent of the damage in their department and try to ascertain why a higher level of warning was not issued.