A cold spell sweeping across central Europe has brought snow back to some countries including Germany, Poland and Slovakia.

Most of Romania is shivering under sub-zero temperatures and winds exceeding 70 kilometres per hour, and the mountainous regions have been blanketed in snow.

In eastern Ukraine, a white coat, 30 centimetres thick in some areas, has covered the early spring blossoms. In Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, the weight of the snow pulled down trees and electric supply lines, leaving over a thousand homes without any power.

In Switzerland too, more than 20 centimeters of snow has fallen in two days, and the freezing temperatures are starting to worry farmers and winegrowers alike.

The cold spell could bite until the middle of next week.

Just months after torrential rains struck the Valencian orange and persimmon sector, growers from the community's region of Utiel-Requena are now grappling with the effects of hailstorms that hit farms on Tuesday.

In a release, the Valencian Farmers Association (AVA-ASAJA) said damages had been recorded on 10,000 hectares of vineyards, almond orchards and wheat fields in the area.

The group estimates total damages of €11 million (US$11.8 million) from the event.

The most affected zones are Campo Arcís, Los Duques, Las Casas, Los Corrales, Los Pontones and Caudete de las Fuentes.

Flash floods blanketed several parts of Singapore on Tuesday (April 18) afternoon, with water submerging vehicles up to mid-tyre level.

Water agency PUB said in a tweet at 1.33pm, quoting the National Environment Agency, that heavy rain was expected over the southern and western parts of Singapore from 1.35pm to 2.25pm.

It then warned of high flood risks at various places from 1.35pm to 2.33pm, including Exeter Road and Somerset Road, Cuscaden Road and Tomlinson Road, and Stevens Road and Balmoral Road.

According to a video sent in by Straits Times reader Yap Lip Kee, a car is seen driving through water that is at least up to half its tyres outside the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. It stops after a while and bystanders are heard exclaiming: "It's stuck".

A taxi follows behind it soon after and manages to make its way through the water.

The first subtropical depression of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has formed on Wednesday. The system could soon become Subtropical Storm Arlene.

A depression has a cyclonic circular motion with surface winds under 39 mph. A subtropical depression or storm has both tropical and non-tropical characteristics.

Tropical storm formation over the Atlantic basin is very rare during the months of January, February, March and April. There has been only one tropical storm on record during April from 1851 to 2016, according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.

"An area of showers and thunderstorms spinning about 900 miles southwest of the Azores began to take on some tropical characteristics early this week," according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.

Combining the reports of "Link Found Between Cold European Winters And Solar Activity (+) The Great Frost, Devastated Europe from Italy to Iceland this shows that with the fall in solar activity we should see the Rhine River in Germany begin to freeze and late season snows and early season snows. Now fit in declining TSI and decreasing solar wind pressure and we have the conditions for a mini ice age in Europe, but are there signs? Let's Look at the snows and record cloud this week in Europe.

Shortly before 8am on 26 December 2004, the cicadas fell silent and the ground shook in dismay. The Moken, an isolated tribe on the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, knew that the Laboon, the 'wave that eats people', had stirred from his ocean lair. The Moken also knew what was next: a towering wall of water washing over their island, cleansing it of all that was evil and impure. To heed the Laboon's warning signs, elders told their children, run to high ground.

The tiny Andaman and Nicobar Islands were directly in the path of the tsunami generated by the magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. Final totals put the islands' death toll at 1,879, with another 5,600 people missing. When relief workers finally came ashore, however, they realised that the death toll was skewed. The islanders who had heard the stories about the Laboon or similar mythological figures survived the tsunami essentially unscathed. Most of the casualties occurred in the southern Nicobar Islands. Part of the reason was the area's geography, which generated a higher wave. But also at the root was the lack of a legacy; many residents in the city of Port Blair were outsiders, leaving them with no indigenous tsunami warning system to guide them to higher ground.

Humanity has always courted disaster. We have lived, died and even thrived alongside vengeful volcanoes and merciless waves. Some disasters arrive without warning, leaving survival to luck. Often, however, there is a small window of time giving people a chance to escape. Learning how to crack open this window can be difficult when a given catastrophe strikes once every few generations. So humans passed down stories through the ages that helped cultures to cope when disaster inevitably struck. These stories were fodder for anthropologists and social scientists, but in the past decade, geologists have begun to pay more attention to how indigenous peoples understood, and prepared for, disaster. These stories, which couched myth in metaphor, could ultimately help scientists prepare for cataclysms to come.

Anyone who has spent time around small children gets used to the question 'why?' Why is the sky blue? Why do birds fly? Why does thunder make such a loud noise? A friend's mother told us that thunder was God going bowling in the sky. Nature need not be scary and unpredictable, even if it was controlled by forces we could neither see nor understand.

The human penchant for stories and meaning is nothing new. Myths and legends provide entertainment, but they also transmit knowledge of how to behave and how the world works. Breaking the code of these stories, however, takes skill. Tales of gods gone bowling during summer downpours seems nonsensical on the surface, but know a little about the sudden thunderclaps and the clatter of bowling pins as they're struck by a ball, and the story makes sense.

Two people were killed after being struck by lightning in the district on Saturday.

The deceased have been identified as 35-year-old Chhatra Kumari Rai of Haguwa, Khalchha Chhintangshahid Rural Municipality and Krishna Rai, 24, of Sanrigadhi Rural Municipality-10, said police.

According to a local, Krishna was talking on cell phone when he was struck by the lightning.

Similarly, police have also recovered a mobile phone set from the body of Chhatrakumari Rai.

Police have reached the incident site. Police said they are making preparations to bring the dead bodies to District Hospital for postmortem, said SP Sudip Raj Bhandari.

Residents in New Zealand have begun a major clean-up operation after being hit by a powerful cyclone which caused rivers to burst their banks, bringing widespread flooding, landslides, road closures and power outages.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Cyclone Cook made landfall at around 6:30pm local time on Thursday on the North Island, before tracking along the east coast and moving down to the South Island.

Two people were hospitalized after the car in which they were travelling was hit by a falling tree. The cyclone also left numerous homes flooded and around 10,000 households without electricity.

Two women and a seven-year-old girl died after being struck by lightning at Jakribettu in Bantwal on Wednesday, the police said.

The police gave the names of the deceased as Jayamma (28), her daughter Shashikala (7) and Kanakamma (29). Another girl, Likita (2), is admitted in a government hospital.

According to the police, Jayamma and Kanakamma, native of Sira taluk of Tumakuru district, were labour engaged in the construction of a water tank on the banks of the Netravathi in Jakribettu. They were living in a tent near the worksite.

Auckland residents told to cancel Easter plans as the cyclone heads directly for the flood-stricken Bay of Plenty region

Cyclone Cook is bearing down on New Zealand and is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening, heading directly for the flood-stricken Bay of Plenty region devastated by last week's Cyclone Debbie.

Two states of emergency have been declared in the North Island east coast districts of Bay of Plenty and Thames-Coromandel, with more districts expected to make that call mid-afternoon when the ferocity of the storm becomes clear.

MetService - whose website crashed on Thursday because of heavy traffic - has warned the approaching storm system is expected to be the worst New Zealand has seen in decades, with forecasters comparing it to 1968's Cyclone Giselle, which sunk the Wahine ferry, killing 52 people.

MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said she was concerned New Zealanders weren't taking the storm threat seriously enough and the approaching cyclone was the worst weather event she had seen in her 12 years as a forecaster.