Officials say a volunteer firefighter has died battling a wildfire in Florida, while two large fires in Georgia have destroyed more than 120 homes. The sheriff's office in Nassau County, Florida, said Friday that volunteer firefighter James "Kevin" Crews died Thursday after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire. Meanwhile, crews are battling two large fires in southeast Georgia that Gov. Brian Kemp says have destroyed 120 homes and threaten nearly 1,000 more. Kemp said no other wildfire in Georgia's history have burned so many homes. He said investigators believe the fire in rural Brantley County was sparked by an aluminum party balloon touching power lines.

A super typhoon steadily battered a pair of remote U.S. islands in the Pacific Ocean with ferocious winds and relentless rains, shredding tin roofs and forcing residents to take cover from flying tree limbs. Super Typhoon Sinlaku pounded the Northern Mariana Islands for hours before daybreak Wednesday, slowing just to inflict more damage across the islands of Tinian and Saipan, home to nearly 50,000 people. The National Weather Service says the tropical typhoon was packing sustained winds of up to 150 mph when it made landfall on the islands. The weather service says tropical force winds and torrential rainfall also led to flash flooding on Guam, a U.S. territory to the south with several U.S. military installations and about 170,000 residents.

Extreme weather conditions from coast to coast put more than half the U.S. in the path of rough conditions. Storms across the nation's eastern half forced airlines to cancel more than 3,000 flights nationwide Monday. Many schools closed early in the mid-Atlantic states, where high winds and tornadoes were in the forecast. Blizzards buried parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota while torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii. California is dealing with unusually high temperatures for this time of year. Areas near San Francisco could see temperatures in the high 80s.

Storms sweeping across the eastern half of the country are disrupting air travel across the United States. FlightAware reported more than 3,500 flights canceled Monday and about 6,300 others delayed. The storms already dumped heavy snow across parts of the Midwest and were moving toward the East Coast with strong winds and the threat of tornadoes. The travel disruptions come during a busy period for airports, with spring break vacations and fans traveling for March Madness games. Meanwhile, a partial government shutdown affecting the Transportation Security Administration has stretched staffing at some airport security checkpoints, leading to longer lines in some places.

Millions across the northeastern United States contended with treks to school and work as they dug out from a major storm that blanketed the region with snow, canceled flights, disrupted transit and downed power lines. Snow moved north Tuesday giving way to sunshine in parts of the region, but National Weather Service forecasters warned another storm originating in the Great Lakes is right around the corner. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared that more 900,000 students in the nation's largest public school system had a regular day. Mamdani invited kids to pelt him with snowballs over his decision.