On Saturday 20th June at around 1:30pm, a 33-year-old man died while kite surfing at Campo di Mare in the Lazio region in Italy. He was kite surfing with two other companions when a tornado swept him up and hurled him against the roof of a building nearby. Falling back to earth he ended up on some iron railings. He was killed instantly. Another kite surfer was luckier as he was dumped onto a car. He was seriously injured but survived.

A devastating storm hit some parts of Italy causing the collapse of houses and sheds, uprooting trees and injuring 28 people, some seriously.

The worst damage was caused in Veneto where a tornado tore down a sports centre and the roofs of some houses, leaving behind a scene of devastation similar to that of a bombing. Most of the damage was caused by the very strong winds - 70-80 km/h even in the town of Treviso. Strong hailstorms also hit the province of Vicenza.

Most of the children and their parents who were in the sports centre managed to escape before the collapse of the sports centre, but some children were slightly hurt. However, a 45-year-old woman was seriously injured when she was hit by an electricity pylon while she was out jogging.

Those same strong winds also caused damage in Milan. Here, trees were torn down, branches broken and slight damage caused to some houses. An 8-year-old child was injured by some flying debris from the roof of a house. In the outskirts of Milan a man was injured by some falling branches. Another woman was slightly injured when a tree came crashing down on her car.

A freak twister and hailstorm swept through Larnaca yesterday, uprooting trees, tearing off rooftops and snapping power cables.

All it took was five minutes for the storm and whirlwind, which broke at the same time, to wreak havoc on the town and its outskirts, as walnut-sized hail stones struck homes and the fierce wind shook cars.

The worst happened in the area near the Antonis Papadopoulos stadium and the Kokkinos refugee settlement. Debris sucked by the twister was hurtled on vehicles, kiosks and residences.

Heavy hail fell on the section of the Nicosia-Larnaca highway close to the suburb of Aradippou and the roundabout junction. Traffic was briefly affected as motorists slowed down to cope with the slippery conditions.

A few minor accidents, involving two slight injuries, took place on the Larnaca-Ayia Napa highway, as cars on both lanes were forced to pull over to the side of the road until the storm died down. The villages of Athienou, Leivadia, Oroklini, Pyla and Dasaki were also affected.

The police, Fire Department and Civil Defense responded to dozens of calls from distressed residents. The twister near the football stadium left residents shell-shocked.

“Never in my life have I seen such a thing,” said Eleftheria Pavlou, whose sun lounge window was smashed by flying debris. Frightened residents told how their cars wobbled when caught in the eye of the tornado.

In northwestern Africa, particularly Algeria, strong winds blew. At Chlef, winds on Thursday rose as high as 80mph. At Oran, speeds topped 65mph. Well inland, high winds whipped over the northern Sahara, driving visibility to 100m or lower. This happened from eastern Algeria to southern Tunisia and northwestern Libya.

Hurricane-force winds have swept across Spain and France, leaving 16 people dead, authorities and media have reported. Four boys were killed and nine other people, including two adults, were injured Saturday when the roof collapsed at a sports center outside Barcelona, authorities said. Eight other people were killed in separate incidents elsewhere in Spain and four in France

The sports complex collapsed shortly after 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) in Sant Boi de Llobregat, a suburb just west of the city, near the Prat airport. The boys who died, who were aged nine- to 12-years old, were among 17 youngsters playing baseball outside when strong winds began blowing. The adults took 11 of the children into the building, authorities said. Six boys remained outside.

The winds caused the metal roof and part of the building's concrete siding to collapse on those inside, where the deaths and injuries occurred, a spokeswoman for the Catalan regional government's fire brigade told CNN. The six boys who stayed outside were not hurt. Earlier official reports that said they had been injured were wrong.

Catalan Regional President Jose Montilla and other top officials, along with emergency services, rushed to the complex, an aide to Montilla said. Emergency workers thought they had rescued all survivors and recovered all bodies from the building by early afternoon, the CNN+ reporter said.

Spanish media have reported winds of up to 99 mph in parts of Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona. Strong winds have also had much of northern Spain on alert. The winds would signify a Category 2 hurricane, which has wind speeds that range from 96 to 110 mph, according to the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The strong winds led officials to put much of northern Spain on alert. Residents were advised to stay inside. Various airports in northern Spain suffered delays, as did the high-speed train service between Madrid and Barcelona, authorities said.

A Civil Guard officer in northwestern Spain died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear other fallen trees, and a woman in Barcelona was crushed by a wall that caved in. A fire brigade spokeswoman also said that two people were killed by falling trees in separate incidents near the city.

A 73-year-old woman in the Spanish province of Burgos was killed when a door slammed into her, and a sailor who was part of a crew rescued from a ship about 70 miles off the northwestern Spanish coast died after being taken to the city of La Corunya, state and local media reported.

The severe weather, which began Friday night, has also pummeled southwestern France, knocking out power for about 1.2 million homes, according to Electricite de France. Regions hit included Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrenees, Gers, Haute-Garonne, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Aude and Pyrenees-Orientales, officials said, with fallen trees and damaged roads hindering access.

On Saturday, two drivers in the city of Les Landes were killed when heavy winds downed trees that fell on their cars. A 78-year-old man also died after being struck by debris near his home, police said. In Gironde, a 73-year-old woman who was on a respiratory machine died after her home lost power.

A storm spun eastward over northwest Africa, reaching the shore near the Tunisia-Libya border today. This big storm has whipped up widespread dust storms over Algeria and snow along its Tell Atlas. But the cold, soaking rain that pelted the northernmost Sahara stood out. El Oued was splashed with 85mm of rain as of Thursday morning. This would be more than the normal yearly rainfall of about 76mm. Eight people died and 15 others were injured as a result of this weather in Algeria since Tuesday. Heavy rain accompanied by hail and snow were reported Tuesday and Wednesday in northern Algeria including Tlemcen, Ain Temouchent, Oran, Mostaganem, Médéa, Algiers, Boumerdès, Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia. A sudden drop in temperature has been registered since Tuesday evening in the north of the country where abundant snowfalls were also recorded. Some 25cm of snow have fallen in particular in the Department of Sétif, according to the National Office of Meteorology.

Large parts of the Spanish Interior were hit by heavy snow with Madrid being badly affected. Between 6cm and 10cm of snow have fallen in parts of the capital causing disruption on roads and affecting rail transportation. One of Europe's busiest airports, Madrid Barajas, was forced to close during Saturday morning due to the heavy snowfall and poor visibility. Across the border in France, more than 1000 homes still remain without electricity after heavy snow caused white-out conditions in the Marseille region.

At least four workers were killed when the upper floors of a hotel on the Spanish island of Mallorca collapsed after torrential rain. "The hotel was being refitted and was closed to the public," an emergency services spokesman said. Mallorca has suffered nearly two days of heavy rain, which has closed roads and forced the evacuation of 120 people from their flooded homes.

Violent storms flooded parts of Rome, killing at least one person as the sea threatened to once more inundate Venice. Firefighters in the capital said they had to evacuate dozens of people trapped in cars on flooded streets and on ground floors of buildings. Civil protection officials said more rain was expected Friday, further swelling the roiling Tiber river, which runs through the city. From midnight to 8 a.m. Thursday, 60-100mm of rain fell in Rome - more than the average for the entire month of December.

High tides hit Venice (Italy), leaving it submerged again, just a day after experiencing its worst floods in 20 years. On Monday as water levels rose to a height of 156cm the city was brought to a virtual standstill. As much as 99% of the city was left submerged by the time the waters peaked mid-morning. This was the fourth highest tide to have hit the city since records began in 1872, and the highest level seen since 1986. The highest tide recorded was during the disastrous floods of November 1966 when the water level rose to 193cm. The recent high tides have been caused by low pressure which has been sitting in the eastern Mediterranean over the last few days. Strong winds funnelling up the Adriatic Sea have created the unusually high tides, driving the sea in across the country.

One person has been killed and dozens of boats have been severely damaged or sunk by storms on the Spanish island of Majorca. The storms hit the island frequently last week, and the weather finally calmed on Sunday.

In San Telmo, a 62-year-old man died when he tried to save his sinking yacht. Winds of up to 60 mph were reported with gusts reaching 75 mph. Boats could be seen sinking into the water for several days after the storm, with people unable to rescue them due to the conditions.

Local residents stated that they were the worst to hit the island, which has a large number of ports, in ten years, with the clean up effort continuing into this week.

Violent storms have battered much of Morocco producing torrential rain and flash flooding, killing at least seven people. The thunderstorms and prolonged downpours lashed the country throughout Monday causing rivers to swell and break their banks. Dozens of homes were inundated by the flood waters and many clay homes completely collapsed leaving scores homeless. Five people were reported to have drowned in the fast flowing flood waters with at least two others killed by lightning strikes. Some of the worst affected areas were across the provinces of Zagora, Essaouira, Azilal and also Oujda in the northeast close to the border with Algeria.

A British woman and her 14-year-old daughter have drowned in a flash flood in eastern Spain which has been lashed by torrential rains. The pair had tried to cross a swollen stream on foot near the town of L'Olleria after rising flood waters forced them to abandon the car they were travelling in. The flood waters reached between 12 and 16 inches "but they did not correctly measure the force of the stream and they were swept away," a spokeswoman said.

Torrential rains in the Algerian Sahara caused flash floods that killed 30 people and injured dozens in a historic oasis region, officials in the North African nation said Thursday. Hundreds of people had to be rescued by helicopter, and up to 600 houses were destroyed in the rains Tuesday and Wednesday around the medieval town of Ghardaia, the official APS news agency said. Security services and the military were helping in the rescue operations. The country's head of public health, Ali Belkhir, told national radio that 29 people had died. But the region's governor said 30 were counted dead by late Thursday, APS said.

The storms this week caused a local wadi -- or seasonal river that remains dry for most of the year -- to rise at some points by 26 feet (8 metres) within hours, APS said. While Belkhir said 84 people had been injured, the Interior Ministry lowered that number to 48, including three people who have been hospitalized in serious condition.

The army has been deployed in Ghardaia to prevent looting, APS quoted the ministry as saying. It reported some 400 tons of food were being sent to the zone, along with 1,000 tents and 200,000 blankets. There was concern that drinking water was contaminated, and authorities were working to reopen damaged roads and downed electricity and gas links. Phone lines to the area remained disrupted Thursday, and local officials could not be reached for comment.

A town of about 100,000 people, Ghardaia lies about 370 miles (595 kilometers) south of Algiers on the edges of the Sahara Desert in a long and narrow valley known as the M'zab, which is listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. It is the seat of the Mozabite people, who practice a form of dissident Islam unique to their region.

Spanning much of Northern Africa, the Sahara is the world's largest desert and one of the driest. But thunderstorms can occasionally bring massive rains to the region, and the engorged rivers can cause serious damage. Celebrated explorer and travel writer Isabelle Eberhardt, for instance, drowned in the overflowing wadi where she was camping in the Algerian Sahara in 1904.

In neighboring Morocco, the MAP news agency reported that two people drowned and several were missing in similar floods near the southern city of Marrakech.

Showers and storms broke out early on Sunday evening of 10th August 2008 in several regions across Greece. A strong hailstorm hit the central Greek cities of Megara and Elefsian, while thunderbolts sparked fires in the areas of Alepohori and Karaouli. The downpour that followed put out the fires.

Similar conditions prevailed in the towns of Gythio and Zaharo in southern Greece. The Fire Service received dozens of calls to have flood waters pumped out. Serious problems were also caused in the northern Greek towns of Halkidiki and Kavala, while landslide and flood waters suspended traffic on Egnatia Odos near the town of Asprovalta for two and a half hours. The hailstorm also caused serious damage to crops in Thessaly.

Yesterday's storms and hailstorms caused damages to crops in Greece, in Orfanos municipality in Kavala, Farsala and Korinthia while thunders sparked fires in Elefsina, Korinthia and Eboia. Also traffic was suspended in part of Egnatia road outside Thessaloniki due to flood water. In the Karditsa prefecture hailstorms caused damages mainly to cotton and corn crops while strong winds blew away roofs and broke trees.