A deadly outbreak of severe weather that has killed at least 19 people began to impact Florida Sunday, downing power lines that sparked a 50-acre brush fire in Citrus County.

A tornado that tore through Albany, Georgia, left at least 4 dead. The town of roughly 77,000 people saw significant damage with trees and power lines downed and blocking streets in the Radium Springs area, WALB reports. A child was reportedly trapped by a tree during the storm.

In a Facebook live video, County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas described the town as looking as if a nuclear bomb went off.

"We need a lot of help," he said in the video. "This is really bad."

At least 18 people have been killed and scores more injured after severe storms lashed the southern US states.

Fourteen people were killed in Georgia, and four people died in Mississippi as a result of the adverse weather.

The deaths occurred as a direct result of severe weather according to State Emergency Management officials.

Georgia's Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency Sunday morning for seven counties in the state.

"These storms have devastated communities and homes in SouthCentral Georgia, and the state is making all resources available to the impacted areas," Deal said in a statement.

Heavy rainfall brought dangerous flooding to parts of Southern California and Arizona, and in some areas, people were trapped and needed rescue.

Near Phoenix, firefighters from several agencies worked together to save two men who were trapped in a wash, according to the Associated Press. Each of the two men was lifted separately out of the vehicle that got stuck in the rushing waters, and neither were injured in the ordeal, the report added.

The men were only identified by a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesperson as a father and a son, the AP also said.

"Lightning never strikes twice," goes the old saying, but last night, lightning struck Sutro Towers at least four times.

Twitter user @sfjes caught the flashes of light on video, and the sight is electrifying, to say the least.

The Twitter user reports that he was standing only a few hundred feet from the tower, which stands between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro. He reported witnessing seven to eight lightning bolts strike the famed San Francisco landmark.

A vicious tornado ripped through Hattiesburg in Mississippi killing at least four people and causing widespread structural damage.

The tornado prompted Mayor Johnny DuPree to sign an emergency declaration as dozens of firefighters continue to search for casualties from the devastating storm.

Homes and buildings have been decimated, trees uprooted and numerous cars, and even a large truck, were flipped over. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) said at least four people are known to have died.

The tornado caused damage across a three-county area, according to local news outlet the Hattiesburg American, quoting Lee Smithson of MEMA.

Guests at Cardrona Alpine Resort, near Wanaka, have woken to a winter wonderland - in the middle of summer.

Light snow began falling on Saturday afternoon, but increased to heavy falls overnight, leaving a 30-centimetre base, Cardrona marketing coordinator Matt McIvor said. The white stuff was still falling on Sunday morning.

In five years at the resort McIvor said he had never seen these conditions in January.

A man had an incredibly lucky escape when he was metres away from a lightning bolt - that struck twice in the same place.

Delivery driver Fahrol Razi, 30, sitting in his van in the Sim Lim Tower car park in Singapore, had already witnessed one bolt of lightning strike nearby.

He got out his phone to video the scene when another bolt struck in almost exactly the same place.

The clip shows a frightening orange blaze of light and a large chunk of a tree being blasted off the trunk and into the car park, with splinters of wood sprayed widely.

A pair of researchers affiliated with the Natural History Museum in Chemnitz and Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, both in Germany, has found evidence in ancient tree rings of a solar sunspot cycle millions of years ago similar to the one observed in more modern times. In their paper published in the journal Geology, Ludwig Luthardt and Ronny Rößler describe how they gathered an assortment of petrified tree samples from a region in Germany and used them to count sunspot cycles.

Scientists know that the sun undergoes a sunspot cycle of approximately 11 years—some spots appear, grow cooler and then slowly move toward the equator and eventually disappear—the changes to the sun spots cause changes to the brightness level of the sun—as the level waxes and wanes, plants here on Earth respond, growing more or less in a given year—this can be seen in the width of tree rings. In this new effort, the researchers gathered petrified tree samples from a region of Germany that was covered by lava during a volcanic eruption approximately 290 million years ago (during the Permian period), offering a historical record of sun activity.

The research pair obtained 43 petrified tree specimens (tree-trunk slices) and report that they were able to count 1,917 rings which were preserved well enough to allow for observation under a microscope. Because the trees had all died at the same time, the researchers were able to establish a baseline between them which allowed for comparing tree ring growth between samples over the same time periods—which covered 79 years. Doing so, they report, revealed very clearly a cycle of growth similar to that seen in modern trees, though in this case, it was slightly different. Today the cycle is an average of 11.2 years, back then it was 10.6—close enough, the researchers suggest, to conclude that the sun has been behaving very predictably for at least 290 million years.

It should be noted that not everyone agrees with the theory that sunspot activity leaves such a clear record in tree rings—other factors might be involved such as general global temperature, weather patterns or even outbreaks of insect populations.

More information: Ludwig Luthardt et al. Fossil forest reveals sunspot activity in the early Permian, Geology(2017)

A 21 year-old fisherman identified as Salanje Thomas has died after being struck by lightning while fishing on Monday in Mangochi district.

Confirming the development to Malawi24, Mangochi Police Deputy Spokesperson Amina Daudi said the deceased along with his friends went for fishing at Mpemba Dock along Lake Malawi.

According to Daudi, a few hours later as they were in the waters heavy rainfall started and suddenly lightning struck and their canoe got capsized.

"All of them fell in the water, his friends managed to swim but Thomas drowned and got missing, they tried to search for him but proved futile," Daudi said.

Brits who headed to Europe this week in search of some winter sun were in for a nasty surprise as a snow storm swept across the continent and Spain experienced its heaviest snowfall in 35 years.

The usually sun-drenched holiday destinations in Germany, Croatia, Italy, Corsica and Serbia are all feeling the chill thanks to the freak cold snap.

Beaches at numerous coastal resorts - where tourists flock to escape the British weather - have been wiped out by freak snow storms.

But the cold weather didn't stop Orthodox Russian Christians taking cold dips in freezing temperatures as part of a celebration of the Epiphany.