A man paddles a makeshift boat along a flooded street in Guasdualito, in the state of Apure, Venezuela, July 4, 2015. A total of 9,000 families have been affected by the overflowing of rivers Arauca and Sarare in Guasdualito, Apure state, because of the heavy rains in recent days in this area of the country, local media reported. (Photo by Carlos Eduardo Ramirez/Reuters)

An employee walks past a rotary dredge working at an open-cast iron ore mine of the Stoilensky mining and concentration plant (GOK), owned by the Novolipetsk (NLMK) steel mill, in the city of Stary Oskol in Belgorod region, Russia, August 4, 2015. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

People leave a camp after a Peruvian police operation to destroy illegal gold mining camps in La Pampa, in the southern Amazon region of Madre de Dios, Peru August 11, 2015. Picture taken August 11, 2015. (Photo by Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters)

Sheep are herded during the annual sheep parade through Madrid November 2, 2014. Shepherds parade the sheep through the city every year in order to exercise their right to use traditional routes to migrate their livestock from northern Spain to winter grazing pasture land in southern Spain. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall as they watch East German border guards demolish a section of the wall on November 11, 1989. (Photo by Gerard Malie/AFP Photo)

A view of the Sheikh Zayed highway in Dubai and some high rise buildings, November 8, 2007. (Photo by Steve Crisp/Reuters)

A photographer has weathered some of America's most violent storms to capture these stunning snaps. Storm chaser Mike Mezeul II, 30, has traveled all over the US to shoot the likes of mammoth thunderstorms and surreal cloud patterns. His incredible collection of storm images are the result of more than 15 years of photography and thousands of miles of travel. Here: Mike waiting for the storm at Cheyenne, Wyoming, June 2014. (Photo by Mike Mezeul II/Caters News)

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)