The death toll from week-long floods battering Australia's east coast rose to 20 on Tuesday, after the bodies of a man and a woman were discovered in floodwaters in Sydney.

Police said it was "suspected" the pair are a missing mother and son whose car was abandoned in a stormwater canal.

Tens of thousands of Sydney residents have been told to evacuate their homes as severe storms and flash flooding inundated swathes of Australia's largest city Tuesday.

The national weather bureau warned of "a tough 48 hours ahead" for Sydney, with 60,000 people subject to evacuation orders and warnings across the affected areas, according to emergency services.

Floods hitting Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia today, March 7th 2022.

Heavy rain caused flash flooding up to two meters high in several areas around Malaysia's Klang Valley, including in the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Hundreds of homes were flooded, with families needing to be rescued. Possessions were destroyed, and businesses forced to close.

Sewers overflowed as drain systems failed to deal with the volume of water. Debris filled the streets, as garbage was washed down roads.

Vehicles were left underwater, with travel impossible in many areas. Residents were advised not to leave their homes unless neccessary.

Electricity substations were closed due to the flooding, leading to power outages. Warnings are in place for further floods in the area.

Overflowing rivers in northern parts of Antioquia Department in Colombia have damaged homes, swamped roads and left thousands of people isolated.

Authorities said the Apartadó, Grande, Vijagual and Murindo rivers in the Urabá sub-region of Antioquia Department flooded after heavy rainfall over the last few days.

Governor of Antioquia, Aníbal Gaviria Correa, said 5 municipalities are in a state of emergency: Murindó, Apartadó, Turbo Chigorodó and Carepa. Colombia's Civil Defence reports that around 2,000 people are affected in Apartadó. One person died in Turbo Chigorodó. Local politician Omar Restrepo said as many as 3,000 people are isolated in Murindó after flooding along the Murindó river.

A wildfire in an eastern coastal area of South Korea has forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 people. The blaze temporarily threatened a nuclear power station, with the president issuing an alarm.

Thousands of South Korean firefighters and troops on Saturday worked to put out a large wildfire that has spread across more than 6,000 hectares (almost 15,000 acres) since breaking out on a mountain on the country's eastern coast.

The fire threatened at one stage to reach a nuclear power plant and South Korea's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production complex, but firefighters brought the blaze under control before it reached the facilities, according to officials cited by Yonhap news agency.

Heavy rain from 05 March 2022 caused severe flash flooding in northern parts of Hispaniola island in the Caribbean Sea. Damages were reported in Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic, and Nord Department, Haiti, where 2 fatalities were reported.

Dominican Republic

Drivers and passengers dramatically escaped vehicles that were swept away by raging flood waters in in Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic. Flooding also caused material damages and at 68 homes were inundated, mostly in Sosúa and Maimón. Over 115 mm of rain fell in the city of Puerto Plata in 24 hours to 06 march 2022.

Civil Defence in Dominican Republic also reported flood damage in the Duarte neighbourhood of Santo Domingo Oeste after the Guajimía canal broke its banks.

As of 06 March, warnings for heavy rain and floods were still in place for Puerto Plata, La Vega and María Trinidad Sánchez Provinces.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 jolted Fiji region at 05:34:18 GMT on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 581.81 km, was initially determined to be at 20.3797 degrees south latitude and 178.4313 degrees west longitude.

Very strong magnitude 6.0 earthquake at 16 km depth

Date & time: Mar 6, 2022 20:14:30 UTC
Local time at epicenter: Sunday, Mar 6, 2022 at 6:14 pm (GMT -2)
Magnitude: 6
Depth: 15.5 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 58.7354°S / 24.8859°W (South Atlantic Ocean, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands)

Heavy snow, freezing rain, and ice hit much of the Central, Eastern, and Southern U.S. this month. Hundreds of thousands suffered power outages, and 5,200 flights got canceled.

Brazil was hit by an unprecedented amount of rain during February, affecting millions. Mudslides and floods hit the city of Petropolis killing at least 152, flooding rivers in Rondônia displaced thousands, and roads turned into rivers in Umuarama.

A cold front brought heavy rain and strong winds to Haiti and Dominican Republic. Rain fell for 36 hours, and several rivers have broken their banks. Nearly 3,444 homes were affected, and 2,500 families were displaced.

Parts of Quito, Ecuador, were devastated by the heaviest rain in almost 20 years. 40 times more rain fell than predicted by the forecasts. The deluge triggered a landslide that destroyed houses, carried away dozens of vehicles, and claimed 24 lives.

At least 20 people died, and more than 55,000 others were displaced after Cyclone Batsirai slammed into the eastern coast of Madagascar. The widespread floods damaged the main road linking the north and south areas of the island, destroyed 8000 houses, and displaced 131,000 people.

Cyclone Batsirai killed at least ten people and displaced nearly 48,000 in Madagascar. Parts of the country were affected by heavy rains and strong winds that uprooted trees and destroyed houses. All this while the island was still reeling from a deadly tropical storm earlier this year.

Storm Eunice wreaked havoc across the UK with 122 miles per hour winds that uprooted trees, blown-off roofs, and knocked out power lines. It is now considered the strongest storm in the history of England.

Eunice caused four deaths in the Netherlands, two in the UK, two in Belgium, and one in Ireland.

Later this month, Storm Franklin caused heavy floods in the northern UK, triggering the evacuation of thousands of people.

In Argentina, wildfires out of control have scorched almost 800,000 hectares of the province of Corrientes, 9% of the province's area. The fires have acutely affected wildlife in the area.

A strong and shallow earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatra island on Friday. The tremor damaged buildings, killed seven people and injured 85. More than 5,000 people fled their homes to temporary shelters.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for February 2022:

Snow-covered Iceland with mostly clear skies provided a good opportunity for a satellite image on March 1, when NASA's Terra, the flagship Earth observing satellite, crossed Iceland 705 km above the Earth's surface. The picture is a so-called MODIS image, specifically focusing on vegetation, snow and ice.

Clouds covered the north shore of the country, and there were a few clouds in the south as well.

The past month was exceptionally stormy, bringing us heavy snow again and again, causing repeated road closures, requiring endless snow removal, and testing the patience of the nation. Still, it is not the worst winter in terms of weather in recent years.

A storm moving through Southcentral Alaska dropped up to a foot of snow in some parts of the Anchorage area.

An intensifying storm system just south of the Kenai Peninsula caused National Weather Service forecasters to upgrade a winter weather advisory to a winter storm warning in effect until 1 a.m. Sunday.

The snowfall had largely stopped by 9 p.m., and the 11.8 inches of snow tallied by that point made Saturday the 13th snowiest day on record for Anchorage, according to the National Weather Service.