Heat blankets U.S. as workers return after holiday

Wi th a scorching holiday weekend in the rearview mirror, a real summer sizzle is about to wash over parts of the United States.

After an extended Fourth of July weekend when temperatures inched into at least the 90s from Maine to Texas and into the Southwest and Death Valley, the mid-Atlantic is embarking on a string of intensely hot days, with temperatures in some places closing in on 100- plus degrees.

Temperatures could reach as high as 102 degrees today, meteorologists said, and Wednesday was forecast to be the most humid day of the stretch.

And unlike on the long Independence Day week...