Not often does Dallas, Oklahoma City and Little Rock see snow on Christmas, but Mother Nature is ready to defy those odds this year.

Residents of Dallas, Oklahoma City and Little Rock may find it hard to believe snow is on the way for Christmas with temperatures set to warm into the 40s and 50s on Christmas Eve.

In addition, the chance of a white Christmas in all three cities is less than five percent.

However, kids and those young at heart will be happy to learn that snow will indeed fall on Christmas thanks to the arrival of a strengthening winter storm and noticeably colder air. On the other hand, travelers both on the ground and in the air are likely to greet that news with jeers.

Snow from the Rockies will reach western Kansas, western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle during the predawn hours of Christmas. At the same time, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes will start erupting across southeastern Texas.

Oklahoma City will also see a few snowflakes (and ice pellets) fly before sunrise on Christmas, but the daytime is when heavier snow will fall and accumulate around three inches.

A top level "red" alert has been issued by the Chilean authorities as Copahue volcano began spewing ash raising fears of an imminent eruption.

­No evacuation has been ordered by the National Emergency office as there are no big towns are in the current risk area. About 500 people live in Copahue, a village famous for its spa waters, and there are about 900 in the town of Caviahue and an estimated 800 more in local indigenous Mapuche communities.

"The intensity of seismic signals suggests the eruption in progress is on the smaller side (but) we are not ruling out the possibility that the activity could turn into a larger-scale eruption," the Geology and Mining Service said in a statement.

Homes have been evacuated after landslips due to flooding in a Swansea valley village and in Pontypridd.

Residents in Ystalyfera spent the night in a leisure centre after 11 homes were affected. Meanwhile, a wall collapsed at the back of cottages in Berw Road, Pontypridd.

Flooding was causing disruption on rail lines between Cardiff and Bridgend and near Caersws in Powys.

There are seven flood warnings by the Environment Agency in Wales.

Some residents have also had to leave their homes in Berw Road, Pontypridd, after a retaining wall collapsed with a "loud bang" overnight.

Part of a second cliff fall on the Dorset coast has been captured by a member of the Portland Coastguard rescue team.

Walkers in the area are being urged to heed warning signs and stay away from the edges and undersides of the cliffs.

The landslip, near the Grand Hotel at Burlington Chine in Swanage was first reported on Friday afternoon.

A vicious cold snap across Russia and eastern Europe has claimed nearly 200 lives, officials figures showed Friday, as forecasters warned it would last until Christmas Eve.

In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56.

The freeze had also left 371 people in hospital.

Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow -- and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia -- for a week.

Russian weather forecasters said temperature in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia had dropped to minus 43 Celsius, while Krasnoyarsk in Siberia reported minus 47.

This "abnormal" frost would last till Monday because of a persistent anticyclone, they added.

In Russia's European region, meanwhile, the mercury is expected to fall to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve before rising rapidly afterwards.

Other European countries hit hard by the extreme temperatures were counting the toll as temperatures gradually started to return to normal.

The Copahue volcano in Argentina's Neuquen province and Chile's Biobio region began spewing ash and gas early on Saturday, but officials say it's still in an early eruption stage. Chile's Mining Minister Hernan de Solminihac says the volcano's smoke plume led Argentine emergency officials to issue a yellow alert and constantly monitor its activity in case of a full eruption.Flights expected to pass by the area around the volcano have been warned.Officials say there's no need yet to evacuate people near the volcano, which is part of the Andes mountain chain.

A major snowstorm that was sweeping across the Midwest and beyond on Thursday left at least seven people dead, clogged highways and forced hundreds of flight delays and cancellations at airports already bracing for the holiday rush.

The deaths included a woman in Utah who died trying to walk for help after her car became stuck in the blizzard. Storm-related traffic deaths also were reported in Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Blizzard warnings were in effect in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, according to the National Weather Service. The Weather Channel reported that parts of 17 states are under winter weather advisories -- as far west as Washington state and as far east as Maine.

The southern edge of the storm system brought winds and damaged homes in Arkansas, the National Weather Service said. Alabama has confirmed that a tornado hit Mobile on Thursday morning, but the tornado's length and intensity were still being assessed. Tornado watches remained in place in Georgia and Florida.

The storm brought much-needed precipitation for drought-plagued regions but was bad news for holiday travelers. Most of the nation's big airlines responded to the storm's threat by enacting flexible rebooking policies for passengers scheduled to fly into the storm's path.

As of 5 p.m. ET Thursday, more than 1,000 flights had been canceled at airports across the Midwest, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats.com.

More than 600 flights were canceled at Chicago's two airports, O'Hare and Midway. Other flights at O'Hare were delayed between 30 and 90 minutes, the city's Department of Aviation reported at 3:30 p.m. CT. FlightAware reported inbound delays averaging 2½ hours because of high winds.

American Airlines announced that it was canceling flights scheduled to depart after 8 p.m. CT and that flights delayed earlier might leave after 8 p.m.

O'Hare is a major hub for both United and American, meaning the disruption could ripple out and affect fliers at other airports.

Event Time
2012-12-21 22:28:09 UTC
2012-12-22 09:28:09 UTC+11:00 at epicenter

Location
14.382°S 167.260°E depth=207.9km (129.2mi)

Nearby Cities
63km (39mi) SSW of Sola, Vanuatu
127km (79mi) N of Luganville, Vanuatu
387km (240mi) NNW of Port-Vila, Vanuatu
723km (449mi) N of We, New Caledonia
863km (536mi) N of Dumbea, New Caledonia

Technical Details

Temperatures of up to minus 45 degrees Celsius in the Altai region in southeast Siberia have prompted the authorities to declare a regionwide state of emergency.

This is Altai's coldest December on record. It was minus 36 degrees in the region's administrative center Gorno-Altaisk on Wednesday night.

An enormous slab of sea floor is in the early stages of collapse off north Queensland, and could generate a tsunami when it finally breaks off, researchers warn. The one cubic kilometer slab - dubbed the Noggin Block - is the remains of an ancient underwater landslide, and sits perched on the edge of the continental shelf. Researchers discovered it while mapping the sea floor around the Great Barrier Reef. James Cook University marine biologist Robin Beaman says the slab will eventually break away from the Great Barrier Reef and when that happens it could generate a huge tsunami. "It's actually up on the top of the continental slope in about 350 meters of water,"