Biden declares emergency in deadly New Mexico wildfires

• The area around the Mescalero Apache Reservation and resort town of Ruidoso, N.M., was hit by a thunderstorm and flooding rains on Wednesday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a rare flash flood emergency.
• More heavy rainfall on or near the region's burn scars was forecast for Friday afternoon due to a "very active monsoon" that could dump up to 2 inches more rain across the region.

Situation report: The wildfires have killed at least two people and destroyed more than 1,4000 structures since starting on Monday.

• The South Fork Fire had burned more than 16,300 acres and the Salt Fire over 7,000 acres as of Thursday morning.
• Evacuation orders have been issued twice this week over both the fires and the flooding in Lincoln County, including the mountain town of Ruidoso, a popular tourist attraction.

By the numbers: The uncontained wildfires were among 21 large blazes burning across the western U.S. and impacting air quality amid a record heat wave and high winds on Wednesday — the bulk of them in N.M. (5) and California (6), per the National Interagency Fire Center.

Context: Much of New Mexico is in the midst of an ongoing drought and climate change is increasing extreme weather swings from drought to flooding and back again, according to multiple studies.

• Research shows strong links between heat waves and human-caused global warming, along with the relationship between more likely and intense heavy rainfall events, flooding and the increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, per Axios' Andrew Freedman.

Go deeper... Drought, floods, wildfires: Climate change upends archaeology