KEY POINTS:
Santa Claus is in for a rough and long trip around the world this Christmas as wild winter storms slam the USA and Canada and large areas of thick fog spread over America, Canada, UK and right across Europe. A red nose may not be enough to guide him but I'm sure Santa's GPS unit will be switched on to ensure he follows the dark night skies around the globe safely.
Wintry places: According to our connections at weather.co.uk Bulgaria will be one of the worst with snow, strong winds and a low of around -22. Sweden's looking better but still very cold, with lows around -16 ... in fact Sweden has 10 cities in the top coldest places today. Finland is also looking pretty cold and nasty. Luckily Santa is from the North Pole where it drops below -40 so I think he'll cope just fine!
While I'm talking about Santa - here is a fantastic and fun little thing for the kids. We've developed the Live Santa Tracker - the radar sweeps the entire Pacific Ocean looking specifically for Santa and his sleigh. We estimate he and the reindeer will start to show up around 3pm...then it'll be updated every hour until 11pm. So let the kids watch and track Santa as he moves closer to New Zealand...very exciting!! (http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/live-santa-tracker )
In America and Canada a white Christmas is almost certain as snow, up to a metre deep in some places, lies frozen on the ground. Highways and airports remained closed or have major delays. Santa will be relieved he can just land on your roof! He also doesn't have to worry about dealing with Auckland's motorways or those stupid new traffic lights to get on to them. Cities like Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Boston maybe even New York will all see snow or ice on Christmas Eve.
In New Zealand Santa will be pleased with conditions. In fact our latest North Pole Satellite map shows mainly clear skies for his travels to our country...there may be a few big bumps as he passes over the south west Pacific Islands with a belt of thunderstorms and big rain clouds from Fiji to the International Date Line.
By the time Santa's left before sunrise on Christmas Day he'll be crossing Australia - where a small tropical storm is blasting the far north west - but mostly out to sea.
Back here in New Zealand the weather forecast at the time of writing this blog was looking pretty good. Most people will be able to get outdoors - and even if it's a little nippy (South Island's southern and eastern coast) you'll still be about to let the kids enjoy their presents outside while you sit inside and enjoy some good New Zealand beer or wine...or just eating yourself stupid!
As of Boxing Day I'll be providing a daily (except Sunday) wrap of the days weather - so make sure you check NZHerald.co.nz over the next few weeks for the latest and accurate weather information.
Finally we've launched our long range forecast for New Year's Eve - I recommend bookmarking this link here. (http://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/new-years-eve-our-official-forecast) It'll be updated once a day until the weekend, when we'll up the updates to both morning and night.
I wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas.
