Sarah Kaplan

Three firefighters were killed batting the flames as 79 fires swept across 11 states.

See where it reached 105 degrees on Thursday and where it could happen again on Friday.

From the Midwest to the East Coast, high temperature records have been broken or tied across 21 states since Wednesday, and the peak of the heat is still to come for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

With the river in freefall, federal officials plan to intervene, possibly imposing large cuts to water usage in seven states. Effects would be felt beyond the West.

Sarah Kaplan The federal government is poised to announce a major decision about the fate of the shrinking Colorado River — a crucial water supply for 40 million people across two countries, seven states and 30 tribes.

A new federal analysis predicts that water levels in Lake Powell will fall almost to the point that its dam can no longer produce power.

Epidemiologists said the country’s slow, sometimes haphazard approach to assessing heat mortality makes that a dramatic undercount.

Arizona, California and Nevada will be required to curb their use of the water from the river by about 20 percent over the next two years, according to three officials.

Arizona, California and Nevada will be required to curb their use of the water from the Colorado River by about 20 percent over the next two

The cuts proposed for the next two years resemble what the three states offered in a proposal this spring.