Amy Graff

After late-spring rain, and with an El Niño brewing, experts say the outlook for the summer is especially complicated.

Boston, New York City and Philadelphia are expected to get into the 90s this weekend. More heat is coming next week.

Clusters of thunderstorms swept through the Northeast on Saturday night, grounding flights, downing trees and leaving more than 200,000 customers without power.

A fast-moving wildfire that broke out near Spokane, Washington, on Tuesday in dangerously dry and windy conditions has prompted evacuation orders for more than 11,000 people, officials said.

The National Weather Service issued several of its highest-level tornado alerts on Wednesday night.

A storm system will bring a chance of heavy rain and damaging winds to Philadelphia, New York City and Washington. Forecasters warned of power outages and scattered flooding.

Critical conditions are expected through the weekend across Utah, Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere.

The earthquakes were a magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, according to a U.S. monitoring agency. People in the stricken area said that buildings collapsed and electricity was knocked out, including in the capital, Caracas.

Experts said the powerful earthquakes that struck California and Japan are likely not connected to the devastating tremors in Venezuela.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes left at least 164 dead and hundreds missing, the authorities said, but the full scale of the damage was not immediately clear.