With only 11 shopping days left until Christmas (yes really), the early morning shoppers in England and Wales will be treated to a wet wait at the bus stop but a very mild one. The temperature at 7am was 13 Celsius (55F) in southern England as the current weather system, bringing the rain, contains the remnants of Tropical Storm Odette, which affected the Caribbean last weekend and hit the Dominican Republic.
Elsewhere in the UK it is turning colder this weekend with some blustery showers, but it will be no good taking the umbrella with the strengthening northwest winds.

In the USA some seasonal shopping sprees may have been interrupted by rain or snow.
In New Jersey there was flooding on Friday thanks to snow melt feeding into the Passaic River. The central states saw more wintry weather. Oklahoma and Kansas were worst hit. Freezing rain and snow caused many car accidents and up to 12 inches of snow is expected during Saturday night. Residents have been urged to avoid unnecessary travel, so maybe that is the perfect excuse to delay the present gathering.

On the other side of the world it is hot for Adelaide. Temperatures will reach 38 Celsius (100F) in southerly winds for the new week. This summer heat is well above the December average of 28 Celsius, so there could be some stressful scenes in the heat of the day, as shoppers get hot under the collar.

And for the busiest place in the world at this time of year - Lapland - there has not been much snow. Temperatures on Saturday were minus 11C at midday and there is likely to be some snow over the next few days. However, the town of Rovaniemi in northern Finland had only seen about a centimetre of snow earlier this week, which is no good for the old sleigh

Weather News from the last five days:
12/12/2003
11/12/2003
10/12/2003
09/12/2003
08/12/2003

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