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Much of the United States felt like a blazing inferno on Wednesday, as record heat attacked the South like a blowtorch, thick smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the Great Lakes region, and triple-digit temperatures threatened to wallop California for the first time this year. Scientists said climate change helped shape the weather conditions that were causing misery and putting lives at risk from Mexico to Canada. There was no disputing the impact: If it wasn’t way too smoky, it was way too hot. (Werner, Stillman and Selig, 6/28)

Air quality worsened Thursday in the Washington, D.C., area because of smoke from Canadian wildfires, posing a health risk to anyone who spends time outside. D.C. had the second-worst air quality in the world Thursday morning, according to IQAir. A code red air quality alert is expected on Thursday, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), meaning the air is unhealthy to breathe and people should spend less time outdoors. It comes less than three weeks after D.C. was gripped by the worst air quality on record. (Swalec and staff, 6/29)

New York City, Long Island and New Jersey have been hit with air-quality alerts as another plume of smoke from Canadian wildfires swirls down across the Great Lakes and into the eastern US. The current forecast calls for the Air Quality Index in New York and Long Island on Wednesday to reach a range of 101 to 150, or unhealthy for sensitive groups. The air in western New York, including Buffalo and Rochester, is expected to fall into the unhealthy range with an AQI of 151 to 200. (Sullivan, 6/28)

As Canadian wildfire smoke continues to blanket parts of the U.S. and endanger the health of millions of people, experts say there is an organ that requires just as much attention as your lungs: your skin. "Pollution can damage the skin by a lot of the same mechanisms that UV radiation can," Dr. Shayan Cheraghlou, a resident dermatology physician in New York City, told CBS News. "That's by generating reactive oxygen species that can cause premature aging of the skin, [and] can exacerbate underlying skin conditions like eczema or other inflammatory skin conditions." (Rocha, 6/28)

More than a dozen people across Texas and Louisiana have suffered heat-related deaths in recent days, as extreme temperatures are forecast to continue. Eleven of the Texas heat-related deaths happened in under two weeks in Webb County, which includes Laredo, Dr. Corinne Stern, the county's medial examiner, said. The dead ranged in age from 60 to 80 years old. (Chasan, 6/28)

The temperature is heating up across the country as we approach the Fourth of July, pushing the mercury to dangerous levels in southern states ahead of the holiday. Over 31 million people faced an excessive heat warning throughout the country on Wednesday, with temperatures over 115 degrees being recorded in parts of the U.S. by the USA TODAY Heat Index. (Perez, 6/28)

For eight hours on Wednesday, Juan Pedro Muñoz Olvera worked in the searing Texas heat, building new homes in the state capitol of Austin as the heat index reached 115 degrees. Less than 24 hours earlier, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a sweeping new law that will eliminate local rules mandating water breaks for construction workers like Muñoz. (Lee Myers, 6/29)

On the third day of 100-degree temperatures last week, locked without air-conditioning in a Texas prison north of Houston, Joseph Martire said he began to feel overwhelmed. His breathing grew heavy. An inmate for nearly 16 years, Mr. Martire was expecting to be released in a few weeks. But it was so hot that day, he recalled, that he wondered if he would make it that long. He was covered in sweat and felt so lightheaded that he had to brace himself against a wall. At some point, he passed out. (Goodman, 6/29)

Tommy McCullough was exhausted and thirsty, living in a stifling Huntsville prison as the record-breaking and relentless heat wave bore down across Texas this month. But he got up Friday morning and set to work, mowing the sun-scorched fields outside the Goree Unit. By midday, he’d collapsed, dying of what the prison system says was cardiac arrest. He was 35. (McCullough, 6/28)