Hurricane Grace — temporarily knocked back to tropical storm force — headed Friday for a second landfall in Mexico, this time taking aim at the mainland's Gulf coast after crashing through the country's main tourist strip.

The storm lost punch as it zipped across the Yucatan Peninsula, but it emerged late Thursday over the relatively warm Gulf of Mexico and was gaining energy.

Authorities combing areas of North Carolina flooded by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred said Thursday that two people have been found dead and about 20 were unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, Fred — now a post-tropical cyclone — was pushing through New York and New England with drenching rains, and Tropical Storm Henri was sending dangerous waves onto East Coast beaches. Forecasters said Henri will likely strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the northeastern U.S. early next week.

July was the planet's hottest month in 142 years of record keeping, according to U.S. weather officials. Several U.S. states — including California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — also saw their hottest ever July.

In August, wildfires continued to rage across the western United States and Canada, southern Europe, northern Africa, Russia, Israel and elsewhere.

A major wildfire burning northwest of the Greek capital decimated large tracts of pine forest for a third day as hundreds of firefighters, assisted by water-dropping planes and helicopters, battled the flames Wednesday.

The blaze in the Vilia area broke out Monday shortly after another wildfire started to the southwest of Athens. Several villages and a nearby nursing home received evacuation orders.

A wildfire raged through a small Northern California forest town Tuesday, burning dozens of homes as dangerously dry and windy weather also continued to fuel other massive blazes and prompted the nation's largest utility to begin shutting off power to 51,000 customers.

The Caldor fire in the northern Sierra Nevada had burned an estimated 50 homes in and around Grizzly Flats, a town of about 1,200 people, fire officials said at a community meeting.

During last week's heatwaves in Italy and Spain, meteorologists in both countries announced provisional data suggesting temperature records had been set there.

But such claims need to be verified by the United Nations before being confirmed or rejected -- a process that can take months of careful scientific checking.

Five suspected poachers have been arrested over the beheading of an endangered Sumatran elephant, Indonesian authorities said Tuesday, as the Southeast Asian archipelago's battle with wildlife crime continues.

Hundreds of Portuguese firefighters on Tuesday struggled to control a blistering blaze that broke out in southern Portugal the day before, forcing the evacuation of around 60 people. 

Hundreds of French firefighters battled a raging blaze near the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez on Tuesday, with thousands of residents and holidaymakers forced to evacuate. 

Roughly 750 firefighters using high-pressure hoses and water-dropping aircraft were attempting to control the flames, which began racing through a nature reserve on Monday evening.

Israeli firefighters battled flames for a second day in the hills west of Jerusalem, forcing the evacuation of five communities and prompting the government to ask for international help.

"The Greek foreign minister already said he will help as much as possible," Foreign Minister Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter.