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Severe weather hit South Africa this week, with intense thunderstorms, flooding and reported tornadoes. The South African weather service issued warnings for provinces across central and eastern parts of the country, covering the risk of torrential downpours, strong winds, hail and lightning.

One tornado, in Pretoria North on Tuesday, damaged hundreds of homes, vehicles and buildings and uprooted trees. By the end of the week, areas in eastern South Africa may record cumulative rainfall of about 100-150mm.

In the eastern Mediterranean, meanwhile, temperatures have plunged as cold air pushed down from the north. The weather system responsible for the wintry blast has been named Storm Coral by the Greek National Meteorological Service.

The storm brought snow to some northern regions of Greece, especially the mountains, and across Turkey. Away from the Mediterranean coast, snow has accumulated in some areas, with public transport and flights disrupted in Istanbul, along with school closures.

Farther east, snowfall of up to 40-50cm (15-20 in) has cut off access to some villages, and up to a metre of snow has fallen on many ski resorts. On Thursday and Friday, the cold air spread south into Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel, but was confined to more mountainous areas.

Extreme cold continued to affect large parts of the US through the middle and latter parts of the week. The frigid air mass plunged southwards across the Great Plains and across much of the east, too.

Temperatures fell below -30C in places and reached -10 to -20C across a swathe of the country, more than 15C colder than average. Heavy snow also pushed south and east along with the cold air, affecting parts of the midwest and mid-Atlantic, in particular, with snowfall of about 30cm in some areas.

In Detroit, a water main burst, flooding streets before freezing solid and trapping people in their homes. Conditions are expected to improve over the weekend and into next week, with temperatures likely to return closer to average.