Clear skies, cold temperatures for Christmas

The weather outside won't be frightful this Christmas but the fire will be so delightful as the temperature dips to a chilly -14 degrees.

Sunny skies and no snow are in the forecast for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so it looks like Santa's travels will be under a blanket of stars this year in the Prince George region.

"We are going to guarantee you a white Christmas this year," said Michael Carter, meteorologist for the Weather Network. "I know that's probably not shocking news because according to the numbers I have here you will see a white Christmas about 92 per cent of the time. So it would be pretty strange if that wasn't what I had to tell you today."

Most of the western parts of Canada will have snow while the eastern parts are experiencing very mild temperatures and in parts of southern Ontario they are anticipating temperatures reaching into the teens for Christmas.

Carter, who is located in Oakville, Ont., wore a T-shirt and jeans when he took his dog out for a walk Monday. Rather unseasonably mild, he said.

"Even if you don't have fresh snow pack, whatever you do have is certainly going to stick around through the Christmas period," said Carter.

The interior of B.C. has had a great snowfall this year, said Carter. On the other side of that story is the cold, he added.

"We do have a bit of an Arctic episode, I'm afraid, moving in for you guys," Carter said. "I know you guys are already pretty chilly so this will definitely be the coldest air you've seen so far this season, if my numbers here are correct. We have you guys at a high for Christmas day of only -14 so that'll be a nice cold day for sure."

Christmas Eve will see a high of -10.

The coldest day so far this year was Nov. 29 at -11.

"The good news is that the cold won't stick around too long," said Carter. "Moving into Boxing Day, we should move back out of that really frigid pattern into something a little closer to seasonal for you. We have you at -3 for Boxing Day with probably one to three centimetres of snow falling throughout the day."

The sunniest days will be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and those will be fairly clear and that goes along with the colder temperatures, said Carter.

"The clouds and snow will be with us pretty much every day," said Carter. "Kind of limited snow chances with bits of snow every day through that week in between Christmas and New Year's with constant temperatures at -3, -4, -5."