Lashing rains swamped India's financial capital Mumbai on Monday as the annual monsoon arrived some two weeks earlier than usual, according to weather forecasters.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday predicted a more intense Atlantic hurricane season this year -- even as the Trump administration moves to gut the agency's workforce and slash its budget.

Rising temperatures in Pakistan's most populous province have forced the provincial government to close all private and public schools for summer vacations early, officials said on Tuesday.

Severe storms that tore through the US states of Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia left more than 25 people dead, leveling homes and businesses while knocking out power for tens of thousands, authorities say.

Two people were still missing in Italy on Friday after unusually heavy spring storm across the Alps dumped more than a metre of snow in some areas, shutting ski areas, halting transport and leaving at least one person dead.

A sandstorm swept through Iraq, filling the air with choking dust that closed airports and put more than 3,700 people in hospital with breathing difficulties, the health ministry said Tuesday.

Australia has just sweltered through its hottest 12 months on record, a weather official said Thursday, a period of drenching floods, tropical cyclones and mass coral bleaching. 

People have always studied the skies to predict the weather, but recently scientists have noticed that clouds are changing on a global scale -- posing one of the greatest challenges to understanding our warming world.