What a difference a cloud makes. The temperatures in the UK today are a few degrees higher than yesterday (between 6C and 10C) - all thanks to a blanket of cloud keeping us warm last night. Clouds also kept the residents of Phoenix, Arizona, warm on Sunday night. The overnight temperature here dropped no lower than 16.1C on Monday morning, which is 12 degrees above the average December temperature.

In contrast, a lack of cloud cover meant a chilly night for Syracuse in New York State. A cold front brought a period of snow and cold air to the region on Sunday. This was followed by a clear, calm night, allowing temperatures to drop to -13.3C on Monday morning. That is nearly 8 degrees below the average December minimum temperature here.

Clouds don't just affect temperatures. As we in the UK are all too aware, clouds bring rain. Today it is Northern Ireland and Scotland that will see the rain, as drier air feeding into southern England will break up the cloud, allowing the sun to peek through here. Elsewhere in the world, however, there has been plenty of rain over the past few days.

A band of rain and thunderstorms that spread across Tunisia on Sunday night brought 77mm of rain to Tabarka in just 24 hours. That is just over the average rainfall of 70mm for the entire month of December.

Rain and thunderstorms also affected much of Turkey during Sunday evening and most of Monday. The city of Konya, which lies 150 miles south of Ankara in central Turkey, received 45mm of rain in 18 hours, a little over the December average rainfall of 40mm.

Spain, too, has seen lots of cloud and rain, some of it heavy and thundery. Seville received 93mm of rain over 48 hours, which equals the December rainfall average for here.

Weather News from the last five days:
08/12/2003
07/12/2003
06/12/2003
05/12/2003
04/12/2003

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