As Arctic climate warms, even Santa runs short of snow [Video]

With a month to go until Christmas, Santa Claus is busy preparing, but the warming climate and lack of snow in his Arctic hometown have him worried.

By this time of year, the town of Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland — marketed by tourism officials since the 1980s as the “real” home of Santa Claus — should be white and pretty.

But on a recent visit, rain poured down from a gloomy slate sky and the temperature was well above freezing, with the thermometer showing +2C.

“My reindeer can fly, so that’s no problem,” said the man in the red suit and long white beard, resting his weary legs after a long day of meeting excited children and adults.

But “we can see that climate change is real. And it’s affecting the reindeer. It’s affecting life here in the Arctic,” added the man, whose employers declined to identify him by his …