The gates to the North Pole’s pool of bitterly cold air have been left wide open this week and as a result Canada and the USA are copping a major winter blast. 

Temperatures into the minus 40s have been reported and as we write this story it’s currently -23 in Chicago (without the wind) and in Toronto it was in the minus 30s (with wind chill added) yesterday…currently -13 (without wind).

Meanwhile England has also had a bitterly cold blast lately with temperatures well below zero.

In Fiji the south pacific convergence zone continues to produce thunderstorms, torrential rain and gales across the island group causing more major flooding.

In Australia thunderstorms have lit up the night skies a fair bit this summer…but take a look at the calm sunrise at Manly in the photos below.

If you’re an international reader please send us your photos and we’ll add them to our “Overseas” gallery.