The world sure is coldening:

The first day of winter brought wind-chill warnings, snow and a bevy of storms to cities across Canada on Sunday, potentially laying the groundwork for the first cross-country white Christmas in nearly four decades. 

It’s even colder than last year:

Phillips said some parts of the country are seeing snowfall amounts that have outpaced last year’s record and near-record totals at this point in the season.

Britain is shivering, too:

After the coldest start to December for more than 30 years, and with snowfall seen in many parts of Britain as early as October, the bookmakers could reap the dividends after taking a record number of bets on a white Christmas.

Britain’s Snowboard Club hasn’t seen such snow in Europe in years:

It’s now ten weeks since the first heavy snowfalls were reported in the Alps and the snow is continuing to come down by the bucket load in many areas. http://www.skiinfo.com reports that apart from the duration of the snowfall obviously setting ski resorts up for a memorable season, what’s also unusual is that almost all of the world’s major ski regions have received well above average pre-season snowfall, usually one area will do better than another. However this time almost everywhere has above average snow.

In Australia, the sodden Bureau of Meteorology can’t find the drought Kevin Rudd keeps talking about:

Above to very much above average November 2008 rainfall over much of Australia largely cleared short-term rainfall deficiencies… For the 9-month period from March to November 2008, above to very much above average rainfall during November has resulted in a general easing of short-term rainfall deficiencies… Rainfall deficiencies for the 18-month period from June 2007 to November 2008 have also eased over large areas...

In Beijing they’re freezing:

Winter truly arrived in Beijing yesterday with the highest temperature of the day down to minus 8.8 ℃. Media reports say it was “the coldest day in December in the last 57 years.”

They moaned about global warming, but now they’re moaning even more about the cold:

Bone-numbing cold spread Monday from the (US) Midwest to the East, forcing millions to bundle up and scurry from place to place. Snowfall in northern New England topped 40 inches in one town, and travel remained disrupted as the days ticked town toward Christmas.

“It’s so cold, it feels like needles are pricking my eyes,” grumbled 19-year-old Ashley Sarpong of Chicago, a fur-lined hood pulled around her face Sunday. “This is the coldest I’ve felt all year.”

UPDATE

Dr Martin Hertzberg, a physical chemist and retired Navy meteorologist, sums up the climate - both intellectual and physical:

As a scientist and lifelong liberal Democrat, I find the constant regurgitation of the anecdotal, fear-mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming to be a disservice to science...From the El Nino year of 1998 until Jan., 2007, the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere near its surface decreased some 0.25 C. From Jan. 2007 until the spring of 2008, it dropped a whopping 0.75 C.