8th December - Today's News: Snow Disrupts Travel in Northern Europe

Amsterdam and Paris flights cancelled as snow causes disruption in northern Europe

Philippine typhoon rescue efforts hampered: 600 missing

Heavy rains and floods cripple several cities across Indonesia

The year 2012 likely warmest on record for US

Smoke from Arctic wildfires may have caused Greenland's record thaw

As Arctic melt accelerates, Bering Sea stands out as icy anomaly

NASA's 'Oppy' rover could be rolling on Martian clays - further suggestive of 'clean' water having once existed on the planet's surface. 

Meanwhile, Dawn probe spies possible water-cut gullies on Vesta which is even more intriguing, though astronomers admit that really they just don't know what they are.

And back in Britain, Nathan Rao comes up with possibly his most fantastical weather story yet.  Apparently, it's going to be too cold for grit to work next week as we get 6 inches of snow, 60mph gales and temperatures down to -30c ........   Ironically, just as the models suggest that not only will there be no Siberian winds from the east, but it'll turn mild across the country by the end of the week (this, however, is as yet by no means absoulutely certain).  There could be 60mph gales in the SW though, as it turns mild and wet.