Missouri’s governor has warned of further severe weather, including the risk of additional tornadoes on Saturday. The state’s emergency management service has reported widespread damage across multiple regions.

“The Patrol and local agencies are working tirelessly to assist those in need and assess the damage,” Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement on X.

The destructive storms have also struck Texas and Oklahoma, where they fuelled more than 100 wildfires and overturned several semi-trailer trucks, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

One of those fires, known as the 840 Road Fire, has already burned 27,500 acres and remains 0% contained, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service. The agency has issued a “red flag” warning for the Panhandle, signaling extreme fire danger.

The state of Mississippi is now on high alert as well for a potential tornado outbreak, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

They had been part of military crews deployed to Lismore, near the Queensland border, to help rescue and response operations.

“Our ADF [Australian Defence Force] heroes were on their way to help Australians in need,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement noting some had been “seriously” injured.

Albanese earlier on Saturday had addressed the nation from the capital Canberra, saying millions of residents were “well-prepared” but “we must remain vigilant.”

Four million people across Queensland and northern New South Wales were bracing for the storm’s landfall with dozens of weather warnings in place across both areas.

Around 287,000 customers are experiencing outages in south east Queensland, according to energy provider Energex, while Essential Energy said more than 42,600 homes and businesses in New South Wales had experienced blackouts.

People in Brisbane, Queensland’s capital, went to bed on Friday bracing for strong winds and heavy rain.

They woke up on Saturday to learn that the cyclone had been downgraded and the city would escape the worst of the weather.

But the danger’s not over in other parts of southeastern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Along the Gold Coast, pummelled by bad weather the past few days, conditions have been very strong with driving rain and strong winds.

Hundreds of trees have been blown over in gardens, parks and along the main roads. There has been lots of debris and emergency services had sectioned off areas most at risk.

“This emergency is not over,” said New South Wales state premier Chris Minns, adding that it was “crucially important” the public did not “dismiss” the storm.

“It really doesn’t matter to us whether it’s been downgraded from a tropical cyclone to a weather event,” he said.

The state’s emergency service operations commander, Stuart Fisher, warned people not to be “complacent” and said authorities in the region expect flooding to continue over the next few days.

As the storm has edged closer to landfall, nearly 1,000 schools have closed, public transport has been suspended and airports are shut. Elective surgeries have also been cancelled.

Flights are not expected to resume until Sunday at the earliest.

The BBC spoke to several people from Brisbane’s homeless community, who took refuge at Emmanuel City Mission, which had become a round-the-clock shelter.

At the Treasure Island Holiday Park in the Gold Coast, just north of Surfer’s Paradise, a gum tree had come down between two cabins, damaging a third. Nearby, a boat was half submerged in one of the canals a block away from the beach.

On the coast itself, many paths down to the beach are now unpassable. Instead, there’s a sudden drop to the ocean where the powerful waves have eaten away at the sand.

But the clean-up operation won’t happen for a few days – the wind is still powerful and there’s driving rain.

Residents are starting to venture out to look at the damage, but plenty are remaining indoors to keep themselves safe.

Cyclone Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low on Saturday but is due to make landfall near the Queensland capital city of Brisbane soon.

Officials have warned residents to stay indoors and remain vigilant, saying the storm’s threat is “not over”.

Winds have brought down trees and power lines and flooded low-lying roads. More than 300,000 properties are without power in the region.

Police said on Saturday they had discovered a body in the search for a 61-year-old man who went missing on Friday after his car was caught in floodwaters in Dorrigo, northern New South Wales.

Emergency responders witnessed the man escaping his car and climbing onto a tree near the riverbank, but rescuers were not able to reach him before he was swept away.

Police found a body in the area on Saturday and said it “is believed to be that of the missing man”.

In a separate incident on Saturday, 36 military personnel were injured in a convoy crash in Lismore, about 200km south of Brisbane. One truck overturned while driving on a narrow road. A second truck then collided with it.

They had been part of military crews deployed to Lismore, near the Queensland border, to help rescue and response operations.

“Our ADF [Australian Defence Force] heroes were on their way to help Australians in need,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement noting some had been “seriously” injured.

Albanese earlier on Saturday had addressed the nation from the capital Canberra, saying millions of residents were “well-prepared” but “we must remain vigilant.”

Four million people across Queensland and northern New South Wales were bracing for the storm’s landfall with dozens of weather warnings in place across both areas.

Around 287,000 customers are experiencing outages in south east Queensland, according to energy provider Energex, while Essential Energy said more than 42,600 homes and businesses in New South Wales had experienced blackouts.

People in Brisbane, Queensland’s capital, went to bed on Friday bracing for strong winds and heavy rain.

They woke up on Saturday to learn that the cyclone had been downgraded and the city would escape the worst of the weather.

But the danger’s not over in other parts of southeastern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Along the Gold Coast, pummelled by bad weather the past few days, conditions have been very strong with driving rain and strong winds.

Hundreds of trees have been blown over in gardens, parks and along the main roads. There has been lots of debris and emergency services had sectioned off areas most at risk.

“This emergency is not over,” said New South Wales state premier Chris Minns, adding that it was “crucially important” the public did not “dismiss” the storm.

“It really doesn’t matter to us whether it’s been downgraded from a tropical cyclone to a weather event,” he said.

The state’s emergency service operations commander, Stuart Fisher, warned people not to be “complacent” and said authorities in the region expect flooding to continue over the next few days.

As the storm has edged closer to landfall, nearly 1,000 schools have closed, public transport has been suspended and airports are shut. Elective surgeries have also been cancelled.

Flights are not expected to resume until Sunday at the earliest.

The BBC spoke to several people from Brisbane’s homeless community, who took refuge at Emmanuel City Mission, which had become a round-the-clock shelter.

At the Treasure Island Holiday Park in the Gold Coast, just north of Surfer’s Paradise, a gum tree had come down between two cabins, damaging a third. Nearby, a boat was half submerged in one of the canals a block away from the beach.

On the coast itself, many paths down to the beach are now unpassable. Instead, there’s a sudden drop to the ocean where the powerful waves have eaten away at the sand.

But the clean-up operation won’t happen for a few days – the wind is still powerful and there’s driving rain.

Residents are starting to venture out to look at the damage, but plenty are remaining indoors to keep themselves safe.

Heavy rain began lashing Bahía Blanca in Buenos Aires province at about 04:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Friday, turning streets into rivers and leaving large parts of the city without electricity.

At a local hospital, new-born babies had to be evacuated after flood waters invaded the building. Elsewhere, more than 40 families have had to leave their homes and the airport has been closed.

Local authorities closed schools and suspended public transport. They warned residents to stay at home until further notice.

The authorities said up to 250mm (10in) of rain had already fallen, with another 50-100mm expected before the storm abates.

The city normally receives about 600-650mm of rain a year.

Images shared on social media showed cars being carried off by raging flood waters.

“Due to the climate emergency and in order to protect the safety of residents, the Municipality of Bahía Blanca orders the absolute cessation of all types of activities until further notice,” local officials said.

Bahía Blanca is under a state of emergency and the authorities have opened several evacuation centres in different parts of the city.

Bahía Blanca, a city with about a third of a million inhabitants, is a major port in the south-western part of Buenos Aires province.

Argentina’s Meteorological Service issued a red alert for storms in the area, saying further heavy rains would be accompanied by winds of up to 90 km/h and occasional hail.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said nine people have died in his state, after making an emergency disaster declaration.

About 1,000 people stranded in flood waters had to be rescued, he also said on Sunday.

The same areas could now be affected by drier but colder conditions, and the risk of snow, ice and significant disruption – according to BBC forecaster John Hutchinson.

The other death over the weekend was in Georgia, where a man lying in his bed was struck by an uprooted tree that crashed into his home.

Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina were under some type of storm-related alert over the weekend. Almost all of those states also suffered catastrophic damage in September from Hurricane Helene.

Hundreds of thousands of homes ended up without power – a number that reduced to tens of thousands early on Monday, according to monitoring site Poweroutage.us.

Some parts of Kentucky received up to 6in (15cm) of rain, National Weather Service (NWS) figures show, resulting in widespread flooding issues.

The rapid influx of rain caused river levels to rise quickly and trapped vehicles in feet of water, images posted online show. Hundreds of roads were closed.

Among those who died in the state were a mother and her seven-year-old child, and a 73-year-old man.

A resident of rain-lashed Knott County told CNN he was anxious he would “lose everything again”, as he was still rebuilding his home from devastating flooding two years previously. Danny Laferty told the broadcaster the type of flooding he had seen in recent years was “different”.

Beshear said that he had written to the White House requesting an emergency disaster declaration and federal funds for affected areas.

President Donald Trump approved the declaration on Sunday, authorising the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) – which he has suggested abolishing – to co-ordinate disaster relief efforts.

In Obion County, Tennessee, heavy rains caused a levee to break, “resulting in rapid onset flooding”, according to an X account for the local National Weather Service (NWS) station.

The town of Rives along the Obion River, with a population of about 300 people, was deluged from the breached flood barrier. Footage showed brown water rushing over rocks and past trees, as rescue workers in red boats passed flooded homes.

Steve Carr, the Obion County mayor, declared a state of emergency himself, ordering mandatory evacuations in Rives. Meanwhile, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey issued his own state of emergency in more than a dozen counties over the weekend.

Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Fema, said she had been in contact with the governors of affected states.

“While emergency management is best led by local authorities, we reinforced that DHS stands ready to take immediate action to offer resources and support,” Noem said.

The same weather system is now bringing heavy snow to parts of Canada. Meanwhile, the NWS warns that arctic air could bring record-breaking cold and dangerous wind chills to the central US this week.

With waves as high as 30ft (9.1m) in some areas of California, the US National Weather Service issued a high surf advisory for the US West Coast through Sunday and cautioned inexperienced surfers and swimmers to stay out of the water.

The weather is blamed for multiple injuries and at least one death after a man was found under debris on the coast. The public was told to be vigilant and to “never turn your back on the ocean”.

Meanwhile, storms across parts of Texas prompted tornado sightings and flight delays on Thursday.

On the West Coast, the NWS warned of possibly “life threatening conditions” for swimmers as storms continued to rock the California coast.”Stay off jetties, piers, and other waterside infrastructure,” the National Weather Service warned in a release on Thursday.California has faced days of dangerous surf conditions.A wharf in Santa Cruz, California, collapsed after it was struck by strong waves earlier this week.In a separate incident, the Marina Police Department responded to reports that an adult man had been swept out to sea on Monday. Rescue officials were forced to call off an air and sea search due to dangerous conditions.Farther up the Pacific Coast, the US states of Washington and Oregon are also under heavy surf advisories until Friday afternoon.Down in Texas, the winter winds brought reports of tornadoes.Jimmy George, the emergency management coordinator for El Campo, Texas, told the BBC that a tornado touched down near his small town of 12,000 people that sits about an hour outside of Houston.Mr George saw the tornado at a distance while on a highway, he said, and locals had reported additional sightings of the same weather event.There were no injuries reported but three barns in the area were damaged, said Russell McDougall, an emergency official in Wharton County, Texas.Local media reported a second tornado in the area, but the BBC was not able to independently verify this.The National Weather Service had warned residents in the Houston area and parts of southeast Texas of the potential for thunderstorms and tornadoes. An NWS spokesperson could not immediately verify the El Campo tornado, as such reports can take several days to officially confirm.More than 100 flights were delayed at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport due to weather, the AP reported.The storm system was expected to pass by Thursday night.The US East Coast, meanwhile, continued to enjoy a snow-dusted Christmas.New York City experienced its first so-called “white Christmas” – when more than an inch of powder is recorded on the ground – since 2009.While snow caused minor travel woes for some on the roadways, it was not the main trouble for Morris County, New Jersey – a suburban area outside near Manhattan.Drivers there faced a large sinkhole that opened up next to the I-80 highway in Morris County, which prompted traffic delays.