Meteorologists in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States are warning residents of their countries not to go outside on Christmas Eve.

In the UK, rain is threatening to turn several of the country's roads and airport runways into ice sheets. However Eurostar trains, which were brought to a standstill by bad weather last weekend, are all now running to schedule.

In northern Germany, as in the Netherlands, there have been warnings of black ice.

Further south, the Canary Islands have been hit by heavy rain. Airports on the islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro have been temporarily closed and all planes headed to them have been diverted to Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

In the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, a tornado has wreaked havoc around the city of Cadiz and left tens of thousands of people without power for hours. Heavy rain made many roads and streets impassable.

In the northern United States, snowfall of more than half a metre is expected to make life difficult for millions of people. Many US flights have already been cancelled, most of them from the mid-western city of Chicago, where thousands of travellers on their way home to Christmas have been stranded. In many of the southern United States, heavy rain is predicted. This could lead to floods or black ice.

Photo of winter scene by johnivara (flickr)