CARIBBEAN
Tropical storm Odette caused havoc on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which The Dominican Republic shares with Haiti. The Dominican Meteorological service recorded some 5 inches (130mm) of rain yesterday afternoon with a further 5 -10 inches expected (up to 26 cm) through today. Mudslides and flooding are inevitable.

Just three weeks ago, torrential downpours saturated the area and forced some 2,000 Dominicans from their homes. Odette has brought another deluge and a further 10000 people were evacuated from low lying areas in the southwest as another bout of flooding became imminent. Odette never quite made it to hurricane strength, overnight its sustained winds eased down from 65 to 50mph and will continue to ease as it moves in a northeasterly direction.

MADAGASCAR
The North of this large Island off the south east of Africa will be turning very wet and windy in the next day or so as Tropical Cyclone 03S approaches. It's going to get pretty rough at sea at the same time. Waves at the moment are about 4 or 5 metres high and the winds are slowly increasing.

USA
It's been windy in the northeast of America too, a cold nor'easter dropped the temperatures below freezing and brought copious amounts of snow. The winds here, gusting to about 40mph, created a blizzard from Maryland to New England. The heaviest snowfall has been in the Boston area with 20 inches or more expected by the time it's over. With such heavy snow the airports in the northeast are struggling to cope.

SCANDINAVIA
90,000 homes were left in the dark after heavy snow and strong winds knocked out power supplies in the south. Southern Norway also got hit by the adverse weather, train services were disrupted and there were power cuts here as well.

The worst of the weather has moved north and now it is Lapland which is bearing the brunt of the severe winter storm. I suspect that Santa will be safe in his grotto.

CZECH REPUBLIC
Carrying on with the Christmas theme - In Prague's Old Town Square a giant 31 metre Christmas Tree was felled by strong winds. It fell into a busy market, destroying several stalls and injuring four people.

Weather News from the last five days:
06/12/2003
05/12/2003
04/12/2003
03/12/2003
02/12/2003

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