Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

These stunning images show the phwoar-some power of some of Americas most extreme weather. Camille Seaman’s wondrous work features huge super cells, crashing lightning and gale-force winds. The roaming photographer has chased storms across the US from Iowa to Wyoming and from Minnesota to Texas. Her favorite places to chase are Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota – notorious hotspots for spectacular storms. Here: Supercell in Minnesota, near Browerville, Minnesota in 2014. (Photo by Camille Seaman/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)

A Haka is performed before the ceremonial departure of the 'vaka' or traditional canoes ahead of their cross-Pacific voyage from Viaduct Harbour on April 13, 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand. Powered by sun and wind only, the 15,000 nautical mile journey to Hawaii via French Polynesia will set off on April 15, aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues such as ocean noise pollution, acidification and anoxic waters, whilst recapturing traditional Pacific voyaging. The votyage is named “Te Mana o Te Moana” meaning “The Spirit of the Sea”. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

A bull hits a reveller during the first running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain, July 7, 2018. Each day at 8am hundreds of people race with six bulls, charging along a winding, 848.6-metre (more than half a mile) course through narrow streets to the city's bull ring, where the animals are killed in a bullfight or corrida, during this festival dating back to medieval times and also featuring religious processions, folk dancing, concerts and round-the-clock drinking. (Photo by Vincent West/Reuters)

First lady Michelle Obama (R), joined by daughters Sasha Obama (C) and Malia Obama, is presented with the official White House Christmas Tree on November 25, 2011 in Washington, DC. The tree, a 19-foot-tall balsam fir, was grown on Schroeder's Forevergreens farm near Neshkoro, Wisconsin. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

Tom Wilder, 17 from Kent, dives in the mud at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23, 2011 in Glastonbury, England. Music fans had to brave more rain today at the five-day festival which opened yesterday. This year the festival will feature headline acts U2, Coldplay and Beyonce. The festival, which started in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid 1 GBP to watch Marc Bolan, has grown into Europe's largest music festival attracting more than 175,000 people over five days. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

In this Thursday, May 31, 2018 photo, a temporary worker using a lantern collects white asparagus from a field in Caparroso, around 85 km (52 miles) from Pamplona, northern Spain. Dubbed the “white gold” of these northern Spanish farms because of their color and the high price they fetch in markets and restaurants around the world, the stringy delicacy is planted every fall and picked each year between April and June, at the height of the spring. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo)