'Torrential rains flood the streets of Milan.'

The Italian city of Milan woke up this Tuesday with water up to its neck.

The heavy rains accompanying the strong storm caused the Seveso River to overflow at dawn, causing catastrophic flooding in the north of the city, with cars swept through the streets.

No casualties have been reported in the region at this time.

Local authorities are working to adapt to extreme weather by building more detention ponds to keep some of the flood volume away from rivers.

But these reservoirs need work.

Marco Granelli, safety advisor for the Municipality of Milan, says: 'We haven't experienced floods of this magnitude since 2014, which means we need to work on''reservoirs.

Other cities in northern Italy are also reporting flooding and heavy rain, including Parma, Piacenza and the outskirts of Genoa.

Five regions are on orange alert, level two alert, and at least one - Veneto - is on red alert.

Venezuela is facing the "acua viola" phenomenon, when the city's canals flood with water.

Meteorologists predict the situation will improve during the day.

The storm will move toward the center and south of the country, where an unusually hot fall has arrived.

On Tuesday, the temperature in Palermo was 34 degrees Celsius and in Rome -''28.