Heat Wave

Feeling the heat?

 Japan is sweltering through its hottest summer on record, weather officials said Thursday.

Fires across Russia, record floods in Pakistan, a huge Greenland iceberg - this current unprecedented sequence of extreme weather events "matches" scientific projections of more frequent

Floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Iowa and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown.

As Russia faced drought losses on a quarter of its grain area and Pakistan feared floods had ruined half a million tonnes of wheat, the US government slashed world wheat crop estimates but said the

A chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan broke away from Greenland and may drift toward shipping lanes in the North Atlantic and off the Canadian coast, researchers said.

2010 is the hottest record ever recorded. Stifling heat waves have gripped Asia, Europe and North America.

 The worst heatwave to hit Russia in decades mixed with a whack of vodka has led to a huge rash of drownings as Russians seek relief from the sweltering temperatures at unsupervised beaches.

 Record breaking heat has caused blackouts in the Northeast US as utilities struggle to keep up with demand.

A towering cake vying to be the world's biggest lasted one day outdoors in Paris, brought down not by ravenous sweets lovers but a sweltering heatwave in the French capital, organisers said Friday.