>Mark Vogan’s Official deffinition of a White Christmas is, a covering on the ground of snow! We had an official high of 31 degrees here with a good deal of sunshine in between morning and late afternoon and evening cloudiness. 4 inches of snow remain on the ground after the first flakes landed here in Saturday afternoon!!

Tomorrow I shall bring you in more detail information on the Christmas Day blizzard in the Plains as well as the White Christmas for many across the United Kingdom..

MAJOR CHRISTMAS DAY BLIZZARD FOR PLAINS
From AccuWeather
Below are some more snowfall accumulations on Thursday and Friday (in inches):
Duluth, Minn.: 22.0
Proctor, Minn.: 20.0
Cloquet, Minn.: 17.5
Fairmont, Minn.: 16.0
Burkburnett, Texas: 9.5
Bethel Acres, Okla.: 9.0
Hayti, S.D.: 8.7
Blanchard, Okla.: 8.0
Wichita Falls, Texas: 7.8
Sioux Falls, S.D.: 7.3
Iola, Kan.: 7.0
Algona, Iowa: 6.0
Lawton, Okla: 6.0
Manhattan, Kan.: 5.5
Phillips, Wis.: 5.4

Winter in Europe

From AccuWeather’s Jim Andrews
Source: http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&blog=Andrews&pgurl=/mtweb/content/Andrews/archives/2009/12/winter_softens_in_europe_not_british_archipelago.asp
Winter Softens in Europe, Not British Archipelago
Last week into the start of this week, truly cold, sometimes harsh, wintry weather gripped most of Europe. Here are some highlights.
1. An arctic outbreak chilled Finland, Scandinavia and the Russian heartland. Helsinki, Finland, was as cold as -22 C–17 degrees below normal for the date–on Dec. 18. A low of -16C at Stockholm was about as significant. Gardermoen, near Oslo, Norway, came in at -20C on the coldest day. Windswept snow and cold to -5C chilled Copenhagen conference goers during last weekend. In Russia, Moscow had its harshest cold–down to at least 26 degrees C below zero on the 15th and 16th of the month–since 2006.
2. Farther south, calm winds, often over fresh snow, made for some bitter overnight cold in Germany, the Low Countries, France and Scotland, to name a few. France had -19C at Dijon. So, too, with Augsburg, Germany. Katowice, Poland saw -20C on the 18th and the 19th. Readings below -15C were reached into eastern Netherlands and eastern Belgium. Days later, in northern Scotland, -15C to -16C was reached over the hills on the mornings of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
3. Snowfall was widespread and locally heavy. Lombardia in northern Italy had deep snow early this week in such cities as Milano and Piacenza. Deep snow also accumulated over high ground from Spain to central and eastern France, northern England and southern Scotland. The Balkan Peninsula got snowfall locally to half a meter or more. Marked warming at mid to late week has since melted much of the snow.
4. Iberia and the Maghrib of northwest Africa have born the brunt of waves of Atlantic storms during the last fortnight. Torrential rains over four days in the heights above the Strait of Gibraltar inundated Chechaouene, Morocco, with something like 35 cm of rainfall.
–A breakthrough by maritime wind flow has swept away nearly all of the arctic chill as of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. However, in the British Archipelago, the cold has only lessened nominally. The cold will be bolstered anew by northerly wind flow by the start of next week.
By Tuesday, a series of Atlantic storms will take aim at northern France and southern Britain. Link with this the cold northerly wind flow and I would look for outbreaks of substantial snow in England and Wales between Monday night and Saturday. I do not know where heaviest snow will fall, as the exact storm track is yet to be determined.

Thanks for reading.
-Mark

Photos to come tomorrow!