It's going to feel like winter, at last

It will begin to feel like winter this weekend, with the mercury set to drop to 14 degrees Celsius during the day on Saturday, and seven degrees at night, according to the MIA Met Office.

Of course, that will not really be extraordinary for this time of year - the norm for the middle of December is 17 degrees during the day and 11 degrees at night.

What is extraordinary is the current temperature, at 22.8 degrees when the norm for the first part of December is 18.

The temperature will drop as a cold front moves south from Northern Italy.

The mercury will drop 16 degrees tomorrow, and it might feel colder because it will be windy. It will be cloudy with chances of rain on both Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, mainland Europe remains in the grip of extreme cold weather.

Heavy snowfall closed Germany's busiest airport in Frankfurt for four hours overnight and caused major delays in rail travel this morning.

Of nearly 1,400 flights scheduled for Frankfurt today, 200 have been cancelled so far -- 114 arrivals and 86 departures.

However normality is slowly being restored.

Yesterday, heavy snow briefly shut Charles de Gaulle-Roissy airport in Paris and paralysed the bus network. The operators of the Eiffel Tower had to close the landmark tourist attraction.

Motorists were warned that all motorways in the Paris region had become impassable and truckers were ordered to pull off the highways and wait until conditions improved.

http://www.maltairport.com/weather/page.asp?p=17148&l=