Happy day-after-the-winter-solstice!

Whew, wagga, I get a hot sweat just reading of those terribly high temperatures ... especially when it's very wintry here.

Take care, all ye caught in winter storms. We sure are: a major ice/freezing rain storm is sweeping through Ontario. It began late last evening and has been icing down all night long. Whilst the trees are a picture of beauty, the sidewalks and roads are most definitely not. The temperature is just below freezing, with a rise of a few degrees expected sometime today ... possibly. If so, this precipitation will all turn to rain, with colder air settling in tomorrow again, and flurries much of the week. I feel sorry for all those traveling this weekend for the Christmas holidays. It's treacherous out there!

It's been an odd couple of weather days here. We've had very high temps (it got up into the low 60's today ). It caused the 5 inches of snow to melt practically overnight. Our sump pump has been running all weekend long, and there is massive flooding in the area. The fact that we've gotten 3+ inches of rain over the past 48 hours doesn't help matters any.

The temperatures are supposed to drop out tomorrow, and the rain is supposed to turn to snow both tomorrow and on Christmas Eve. Maybe a white Christmas isn't out of the question after all.

DiGoRyKiRkE. Hope you stay dry with the strange weather there. Have enough of the troubles with sump pumps in the spring here. It's about the only thing that makes me grateful for the cold.
Wagga. It is indeed a strange thing in my mind to say this with the snow, and wind outside right now, but keep cool my friend. I know how much danger there is in extreme heat. We had a few cases of heatstroke in Scouts during camp, and it's nothing to take lightly.

It was bad Friday & yesterday and today the maximum was 46 degrees Celsius (112F).

Whew! I have trouble even conceiving of such a thing! The only time I've experienced that kind of heat has been in travels to warmer places than here (not counting heat index values here).

In contrast, the high temperature here today was -1F/-18C, and we're going down to -18F/-28C tonight, with wind chills approaching -40. This is actually the coldest we've been in a couple of years. Getting soft, I guess.

It's snowing!!!! We're going to have a white Christmas after all! True, it's not going to be a done of snow, but the inch that's on the ground is certainly enough to make things look more festive!

Dale, I'll go out on a limb and guess that you guys are definitely having a white Christmas Those temps are astounding, especially so early in the season.

Us too, DiGs. So glad you are as well. Our major snow came two weekends ago, giving us a very hefty foundation; last weekend was the ice storm, after which some of the snow melted and the roadside slush became very icky, but there had been so much snow accumulation prior that we didn't really lose very much, yay!

The forecasters are predicting flurries most every day this week, but to my/our great delight, I woke up this morning (early for my walk) to a winter wonderland. This was quite unexpected, which increases the pleasure all the more. A couple of inches had already fallen, and the white precipitation kept up another few hours, so everything looks pristine again. So gorgeous! And because a cold spell has settled in, this should be around for quite awhile. Some accumulating snow is expected Christmas afternoon and evening, but not enough to hamper travel seriously, although great care is always needed when driving in any wintry weather.

A white Christmas, woohoo! Stay safe everyone, and have a blessed Christmas, no matter what the weather.

A white Christmas indeed, especially as an Alberta Clipper is going to bring us a few more inches tonight.

Glad to hear some of our other Northern NarniaWebbers will be enjoying the white stuff this holiday.

Midsummer in NZ, so we had rain starting at midday on Christmas Day. Have cancelled going camping and now plan to go just for a couple of nights and not actually stay in the camping ground. Such are the vaguaries of the NZ summer!

It was a lovely white Christmas here. Nice and cloudy . Christmas Eve was snowy, but cleared up later in the evening, which allowed for some FANTASTIC views of the night sky. I spent a good twenty minutes out under the stars by myself just singing Christmas carols

Sorry your camping trip was scratched, Auntie. Christmas camping sounds like fun.

That sounds lovely, Digs! I have fond memories of dark Christmas skies with snow crunching underfoot. Alas, here the sky is brightened by city lights. Our clouds also cleared yesterday evening, allowing nice views of the ISS and the Chinese Tiangong. By 10pm it was overcast again.

Today was one of those days that make you hope that the end is in sight. Just before you trip, and land face first in a snowdrift .
Upper thirties, with just a hint of a breeze. Just perfect for working in the woodshop with the door open. A slight chill crept in as the sun sunk low, but was managible.
Reality is supposed to sink in by Sunday. Highs in the single digits, with below zero temps by Tuesday. Good thing I didn't put away the cold weather gear.

Midsummer in NZ, so we had rain starting at midday on Christmas Day.

I'm sorry the rain ruined your camping trip, but that glorious rain extended all the way to the Blue Mountains as well. Oh bliss! After 46 degrees C last Sunday, when the heat hit like a wall anyone who dared to go outside, I was dreading what Christmas morning would be like. Instead it has been rather mild. Though we are back to the 30's today - Celsius that is.

It's even warm here. We set a record high today of 9C (48F), breaking the old record of 7C which had stood since 1896. Some of our snow sublimated (evaporated directly to a gaseous state instead of melting), so there's a lot of fog out there now that the sun has set.

Reality returns tonight, though, with temperatures below -17C (0F) by morning, and staying below 0F for the rest of the year.

Here's a question for those of you from Australia and New Zealand. Are you affected by the same weather fronts? Here in Kansas, most of our fronts either sweep down from Canada or up from the Gulf of Mexico and affect everything from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic ocean. However, everything west of the Rocky Mountains tends to have very different weather from the rest of the USA.
As an example, even though I live a long ways away from Gazer, the same super cold front is coming through tonight and we're going from the mid-50Fs(13C) down to about 25F(-3C) tomorrow.

@Fantasia Kitty: Now that is a very good question. I assumed that the rain we were fortunate to get over Christmas might have affected New Zealand as well, since coracle said it was raining there as well. But it might have been just a weird coincidence. I'd need input from coracle. However, since Sydney is part of the Eastern seaboard of Australia, facing New Zealand, it might very well be influenced by the same weather systems. That is, if such weather systems aren't weakened by the Tasman Sea between Sydney and New Zealand.

Yes, the heat wave that afflicted us so much last Sunday did cross the entire continent of Australia. Perth had it, then Adelaide, then by Sunday it was our turn. But what happened to this heatwave after that? I suppose it petered out over the ocean, since we don't always get NZ weather reports.

There is a cyclone brewing over North West WA. If it is strong enough it might cross the continent diagonally and we could get some more rain in Sydney. But that is not the only way we get rain, since we get localised rainfall between the coast and further inland, sometimes reaching the Blue Mountains. We can have three different climates within a distance of 100 km, with the Blue Mountains noticeably cooler and Sydney positively balmy. Since I live equidistant from both, I get more extremes of temperatures.

It is supposed to be the monsoon in Darwin and Northern Australia, which can also drag weather further south, especially in Queensland. And there is supposed to be a circular current of air somewhere to the south of Uluru, which also influences Australian weather.