Kids play in water to cool off during the scorching weather of a heatwave at a River Landing splash park in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada July 2, 2021. (Photo by David Stobbe/Reuters)

This picture taken on February 16, 2017 in Fangshan village in China's coastal province Fujians, shows a villager performing the “eating flowers” ritual. Villagers in eastern China have a unique way of washing away the taint of evil spirits – by bathing in a shower of scorching sparks. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Against the scorching sun, a hungry jackal chases a flock of birds looking for a quick morning snack. Taken in South Africa's Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, these images capture the moment a lone hunter tries, and then succeeds, in his pursuit. (Photo by John Mullineux/Solent News)

Participants dance during the Water Gun Festival on July 07, 2019 in Seoul, South Korea. Thousands of people enjoyed the annual festival which is being held over the weekend during the scorching heat summer in Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

This watering hole is the social hub of the veldt; the scrubby grasslands that stretch across Namibia. The scorched earth supports sometimes fragile populations of magnificent wildlife – from endangered predators to plentiful herds of game. But these gentle giraffes and elephants need to be careful: lions don’t sleep at night, they hunt! The spectacular starscape above southern Africa is unchanged since explorers first mapped the continent. The photographer, Pietro Olivetta from Italy, said he had to be patient to capture these shots – but it was worth the wait. (Photo by Pietro Olivetta/Caters News)

Workers hang hundreds of color-dyed sheets of cloth on a bamboo framework to dry in a dyeing factory in Narayanganj, Bangladesh on May 23, 2023. The drying process usually takes 4 hours, with each set of 200 pieces at a time to dry in temperatures over 42 degrees Celsius. Workers use hats for protection from the scorching heat because they have to constantly turn the colorful fabrics so that they dry perfectly in the sunlight. (Photo by Joy Saha/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An Indian white tiger cools off in a pond in its enclosure at Chhat Bir Zoo on the outskirts of Chandigarh on May 22, 2016. Temperatures have soared to a scorching 51 degrees Celsius in one Indian city, meteorologists said, with the ferocious heat setting a new national record. Northern Phalodi wilted as the mercury reached a new high on May 20, equivalent to 123.8 Fahrenheit, beating a 60-year-old record. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP Photo)

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)