Weather extremes across Europe

Christmas is looking very different across Europe and further east this year. Russia, which will actually celebrate Christmas day on January 7, has been gripped by an unseasonable chill for the last 10 days now. Eastern Siberia plunged as low as -50°C, while in Moscow it was a more modest -20°C Poland has been thawing out for the most part, but eastern provinces close to Ukraine and Belarus continue to see heavy snow. Germany and France have been seeing other extremes however, the southern parts of both countries experiencing temperatures in excess of 20°C.