It remains warm in the west with northern Scotland currently sitting at 12C at Altnaharra but on the other end of the continent, it remains bitter.

High elevated and deeply snow covered Euzurum, eastern Turkey dropped to -35C overnight, nearing their December record of -37C.

December so far

Make the most of the quiet open to this week because our weather is about to turn nasty. While rain and gales sweep across Ireland during Tuesday and the UK Tuesday/Wednesday, it’s looking downright stormy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with not one but two deep Atlantic lows.

Christmas Eve storm

Christmas Day storm (separate)

There’s no getting away from the fact that the polar vortex is strengthening. I showed you the 10mb level the other day and here is the 50mb level.

This means warmer times throughout the mid latitudes.

Note the NH jet stream becomes flat which allows oceanic air to flood the continents with cold air bottled up to the north.

Watch this morning’s video.