We are getting a lot of needed rain here in California and in Southern California where I live. Probably 4-5 inches for the week here. And the nice thing about the cloud cover is that the temperature is 10-15F warmer at night and in the early morning.

And the temperature has been a steady 58-59F for most of the day and this evening too.

My viewing of the peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower was postponed until 2010 by several inches of new snow, the kind with the big, slowly-falling flakes. More cold air is coming in behind it; areas north of here will not get above 0F today. But it guarantees a white Christmas!

Speaking of the 2010 Geminids, unlike this year the moon will be approaching full around that time. However, a total lunar eclipse (the world's first since February 2008) comes a week later, on December 21. North America is perfectly situated to see the entire eclipse. More details here, including eclipse times and a map showing where it's visible.

14 inches of snow in my area!!!

we are supposed to get a snowstorm starting tonight and some places have already closed because of it! yikes!

Welcome to winter! (or summer if you live in the Southern Hemisphere). The solstice comes just a few minutes (1747 GMT), marking the longest night in the North and the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere.

Our weather is behaving as one might expect; the East Coast is still cleaning up piles of snow from the recent nor'easter, and now another big storm is shaping up to make travel interesting in the north central areas of North America...just in time for Christmas. We'll likely be adding to all the snow we have - and travel could be very interesting later in the week.

good news! the 'snow storm' was nothing! it snowed, but just a little bit! yay!

Well, let's see. This past week my sector of Alaska received a good 12 inches of fresh snow. The temperatures dropped down to the -10 F for a couple of days, but we are now in the upper 20s and I am worried our snow may begin to melt!

Despite being in Alaska, I can't give any reports on the Northern Lights; we do not see them very often anymore due to light pollution. Even the stars have gotten to be quite faint.

Stargazer: I did see photos of that strange spiral over Norway. My first thought was "That's computer generated, right?" Very strange. Amazing that a "Mere" rocket missfire could cause such an odd light phenomena.

Sorry to hear about that light pollution keeping you from seeing the Northern Lights, Adeona. That's a problem here where I live too.

The weather people are beginning to play up this big central storm, with areas of Minnesota predicted to receive up to 20 inches of snow - the most received on a Christmas Day in 30 years.

Now that makes for a white Christmas!

Here's part of the winter storm warning posted for our area:

NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS CAN BE EXPECTED... . PARTICULARLY LATE THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS WILL LIKELY EXCEED A FOOT IN MANY AREAS... . WITH A FEW TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 20 INCHES POSSIBLE.

this year, I will probably have a white Christmas! very unlike last year when we had a very icy christmas!

the snow this year hasn't been too bad.....

The weather is very strange here. There has fallen 60 cm. of snow and now it's melting, but at night there are temperatures below zero... very strange.. but it'll be my first white christmas, although it isn't snowing

It is cooler here compared to the last couple of xmases.

Today it is rather wet and rainy.....and cold. ugh! the weather is SO weird! the snow is getting slushy and it's really dreary......

days before x-mas, it snowed so much. Then it rained,x-mas day was dry and now it is raining again and the weather forcast says it'll snow again.

Loved all that snow over Christmas. But because of that warm day, there's about 5 inches of ice on the roads (mostly neighborhood roads), and the sidewalks still aren't cleared. When I run in the morning, it's always 'how long can I go before I slip?' lol

In the NY capital region, there's barely any snow This is quite odd for around here, (or at least it used to be... I blame global warming). We're really lucky, we almost had a green Christmas, again. I love the winter, so I'm going to move where ever there is snow once I get out of college.
The worst part is my brother got like a foot of snow a week ago... and he lives in VA!!!