The northeastern United States sweltered this week in a scorching summer heat wave, complete with stagnant, sticky air and no winds for relief, forecasters said. Even in a summer already filled with stretches of very hot weather, this week will be stubbornly brutal, with no relief in sight until the weekend brings thunderstorms to the region, they said. "Plain and simple, this week may feel the worst of any week for this summer in the Northeast," said Accuweather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. (Reuters)

The stern of the stranded cargo vessel Rena grounded on the Astrolabe Reef is seen on October 20, 2011 in Tauranga, New Zealand. Salvage crews continue to pump oil off the ship in an effort to remove as much as possible before bad weather predicted for the evening threatens to break the vessel and release more oil into the sea. Over 300 tonnes of oil has leaked from Rena since it hit the reef on October 5. (Photo by New Zealand Defence Force via Getty Images)

A tea garden worker plucks tea leaves inside Aideobarie Tea Estate in Jorhat in Assam, India, April 21, 2015. Unrest is brewing among Assam's so-called Tea Tribes as changing weather patterns upset the economics of the industry. Scientists say climate change is to blame for uneven rainfall that is cutting yields and lifting costs for tea firms. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

Boat crew members train on the waters of the Tonle Sap River on the morning of the first day of the Water Festival on November 13, 2016 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The yearly three-day Water Festival is one of the most important holidays in Cambodia and celebrates the end of the rainy season and the start of the rice harvesting. The Festival also coincides with the Tonle Sap river reversing course, which it does twice a year. Approximately 2 million people are expected to attend this year's festival, during which 259 boats and nearly 20,000 oarsmen will participate in the races. After a fatal stampede resulting in the death of some 353 people during the Water Festival in 2010, it has been cancelled four times over the past five years, with weather used as an official excuse. (Photo by Omar Havana/Getty Images)

A girl looks on next to a damaged car buried in mud in an area heavily affected by torrential rains and flash floods in the village of Kamuchiri, near Mai Mahiu, on April 29, 2024. At least 45 people died when a dam burst its banks near a town in Kenya's Rift Valley, police said on April 29, 2024, as torrential rains and floods battered the country The disaster raises the total death toll over the March-May wet season in Kenya to more than 120 as heavier than usual rainfall pounds East Africa, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)

“A dirty thunderstorm (also, Volcanic lightning) is a weather phenomenon that occurs when lightning is produced in a volcanic plume. Dirty thunderstorms have been reported in Chile above the Chaiten Volcano, above Alaska's Mount Augustine volcano, and Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano”.

Photo: A cloud of ash pours from Puyehue volcano in southern Chile, at sunset on June 5, 2011. (Claudio Santana/AFP)

A spooky sight to behold! This is what a psychiatric hospital that has been abandoned for years looks like. Complete with bowling alley and a theater, the hospital shows just how much nature has weathered it over time as paint peels from the walls and the mattress gather dust. Here: This area of the hospital was last used as a day care center in the early 2000s. (Photo by Will Ellis/Caters News)

People struggle with the wind as they cross the street under the rain as typhoon Mitag is expected to hit northern Taiwan, in Keelung, Taiwan, 30 September 2019. According to report, Typhoon Mitag will disrupt air, land and water traffic. Mitag is located at sea about 290 kilometers off the south-southeast of Yilan County, moving at 27 kilometers per hour at a northwesterly direction, with maximum sustained winds of 126 kilometers per hour, with gusts of up to 162 kilometers per hour, and with a radius of 180 kilometers, according to Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. (Photo by Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)