High Heat, Smoke, Storms Move to East Coast

Storms, high heat, and wildfire smoke are spreading from the Midwest to the East Coast this weekend as extreme weather grips more of the country. MSNBC gives us a weather rundown:

• New York City, enveloped in muggy heat, is facing a likely thunderstorm this afternoon.
• Storms are also heading for Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic states this weekend, with parts of Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania expecting severe thunderstorms.

• Today, temperatures in St. Louis topped 100 degrees for the 10th straight day (its record is 13). High heat in Washington, DC, could break the city's 106-degree record. Chicago could be hotter than 100 degrees for the fourth straight day, an all-time record.
• Winds have carried smoke from wildfires to Maryland and other states, bringing pollutants with it. Smoke has been seen "from the Rockies to to the Eastern Great Lakes, the mid Atlantic, and the Southeast," says the US Air Quality "Smog Blog." The highest-density smoke was "mainly over the Midwest and down towards the Southeast."

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands are still without electricity after last weekend's storms, and 46 deaths have been tied to extreme heat since the first bout of high temperatures two weeks ago. (More temperatures stories.)