At about summer's halfway point, the record-breaking heat and weather extremes are both unprecedented and unsurprising, hellish yet boring in some ways, scientists say.

Killer heat. Deadly floods. Smoke from wildfires that chokes.

Crews battled "fire whirls" in California's Mojave National Preserve this weekend as a massive wildfire crossed into Nevada amid dangerously high temperatures and raging winds.

The York Fire was mapped at roughly 120 square miles (284 square kilometers) on Monday night, with no containment.

Chinese state media report 11 people have died and 27 are missing amid flooding in the mountains surrounding the capital Beijing.

Days of heavy rains have prompted authorities to close train stations and evacuate people in vulnerable communities to school gyms, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. Homes have been flooded, roads torn apart and cars piled into stacks.

A massive wildfire burning out of control in California's Mojave National Preserve was spreading rapidly amid erratic winds, while firefighters reported progress against another major blaze to the southwest that prompted evacuations.

The York Fire that erupted Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.

As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation's poorest neighborhoods, doesn't have air conditioning.

The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.

Phoenix sizzled through its 31st consecutive day of at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) and other parts of the country grappled Sunday with record temperatures after a week that saw significant portions of the U.S. population subject to extreme heat.

The National Weather Service said Phoenix climbed to a high of 111 F (43.8 Celsius) before the day was through.

Britain said on Monday it will grant hundreds of new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea in a bid for energy independence, ignoring calls from environmental campaigners and the United Nations to stop the development of new fossil fuel projects.

The plans announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak include a pledge to invest 20 billion pounds ($26 billion) in carbon capture and storage projects as Sunak maintained the government's commitment to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050.

Dangerous heat is forecast to "engulf" much of the eastern half of the United States as extreme temperatures spread from the Midwest into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic where some residents will see their hottest temperatures of the year, according to the National Weather Service.

Althouth much of the country does not cool much on normal summer nights, night temperatures are forecast to stay hotter than usual, prompting excessive heat warnings from the Plains to the East Coast.

With millions of Americans facing broiling heat across the Southwest, President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to announce new steps to protect workers, improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible, the White House says.

He'll be joined by the leaders of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The coastal Chinese city of Shantou on Thursday joined parts of Taiwan in shutting down schools and offices as Typhoon Doksuri brings heavy wind and rain to the Taiwan Strait and surrounding areas.

Doksuri weakened further on Thursday, with sustained winds of 155 kph (96 mph) and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph), according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon's center will not hit Taiwan's mainland, but its outlying bands will still bring stronger winds and rains Thursday afternoon.