Two days of snow could signal the end of the Earth

In the past week, unusually heavy snow has been hitting southern Italy, a usually temperate and sunny part of the world.

The cold wave left at least 23 dead earlier in the week, including several migrants and homeless people in Poland, Italy, Bulgaria and Russia.

The Snow covers rooftops of Santeramo on January 8, 2017 during snowfalls near Bari in the Puglia region in the south of Italy (Picture: NICO FURIO/AFP/Getty Images)

The toll of hypothermia deaths in Poland since 1 November rose to 71 on Wednesday, authorities in Warsaw confirmed.

500 years ago an Italian philosopher made an apocalyptic prediction that two consecutive days of snow in the southern town of Salento would herald the end of the world.

Picture: RAFFAELE PONTRANDOLFO/AFP/Getty Images

Matteo Tafuri, also a physician and an astrologer, wrote:

Salento of palm trees and mild south wind, snowy Salento but never after the touch.

Two days of snow, two flashes in the sky, I know the world ends, but I do not yearn.

It has been snowing for two straight days in Salento, covering the beaches in the coastal town.

And some people think this is heralding something grim.

Donald Trump's inauguration as 45th President of the United States will take place on 20 January.

More: This is why you won't survive the apocalypse