California's biggest wildfire merged with another blaze as it razed homes in a remote region in the state's north Sunday.

The big picture: The Dixie Fire, which erupted July 14 near the origin of the deadly 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, is one of 86 large wildfires burning across the U.S. West.

At least 125 people are dead after monsoon rains triggered landslides in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

State of play: Downpours lasting several days have impacted hundreds of thousands of people, as major rivers are in danger of breaking through their banks.

A significant and far-reaching heat wave is poised to build across much of the continental U.S. during the next few weeks, and it could be the most expansive in the country so far during this unusually hot summer, aggravating drought and wildfires.

The big picture: Forests across the West are already burning at a scope and intensity that's unusual for this time of year. Drought data released Thursday showed that what is already the worst Western drought so far this century is only intensifying. Any additional heat will aggravate an already dire situation.

The extreme heat that arrested the Western United States and Canada last month has prompted scores of young baby hawks to launch themselves from their nests, and sparked a mass die-off of marine life, National Geographic reported Thursday.

The big picture: The historic heatwave coincided with the birds' nesting season, and the newly hatched hawks found themselves without any avenue of relief other than to throw themselves from their nests, National Geographic reported.

Flooding from torrential rain in China's Henan province has killed at least 33 people this week and eight more remain missing, according to CNN.

The big picture: Flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and led to at least 1.22 billion yuan (around $190 million) in damage across the province, which is home to more than 99 million people.

Wildfires across parts of the U.S. and Canada are burning unusually intensely and emitting larger amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than typical during midsummer, scientists say. Massive blazes in Siberia are also adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, while contributing to local air pollution.

Why it matters: The fires are thriving in areas experiencing extreme heat and drought conditions. They are both a consequence of climate change and an accelerant of global warming.

A massive, uncontained wildfire has crossed the border from Northern California into Nevada — triggering fresh evacuations, this time in the Silver State, AP reported early Thursday.

The big picture: The Tamarack Fire, south of Lake Tahoe, has razed over 68 square miles since erupting on July 4 — one of 23 blazes ignited by lightning strikes, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It's one of 78 large fires raging across 13 U.S. states.

Despite pleas from the city of St. Petersburg, environmentalists and activists, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down Wednesday and again refused to declare a state of emergency for Tampa Bay's ongoing red tide.

Why it matters: DeSantis said his office is committed to working with the community to fight the red tide, but argued that a state of emergency would hurt businesses by sending the message that "Florida has problems."

Smoke from the wildfires engulfing the U.S. West and Canada and carrying harmful air pollution has triggered air quality alerts in the Upper Midwest and East Coast cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Driving the news: The coast to coast smoke, which is clearly visible from space, is due to the nearly 300 wildfires burning in British Columbia and the more than 80 large blazes in the U.S.

A couple whose gender reveal party in Southern California triggered a wildfire that killed a firefighter last September has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson announced Tuesday.

Driving the news: A smoke-generating pyrotechnic device from the party sparked the El Dorado Fire in which 39-year-old firefighter Charles Morton died. Another 13 people were wounded. The blaze razed 22,680 acres and forced the evacuations of hundreds of people in the area.