alive, has plenty of it, and this desert doesn't give up its secrets easily. that's all for now. i'm ann curry. for all of us here at nbc news, thanks for joining us. this morning on "early today," fire fury. wild fires send arizona residents fleeing as much of the country swept through record-breaking heat. mystery solved? what appears to be the source of the deadly e. coli outbreak in europe. and south american shake-up, a rumbling volcano spews tons of ash in chile. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello. good morning, i'm lynn berry. today we begin with out of control. some parts of the u.s. recover

from the tumultuous tornado season, arizona is now dealing with a blaise covering more than 200 square miles. residents are evacuating at the state's third biggest wild fire ever rages on. nbc's frances coe reports. >> reporter: the temperatures and high winds seemed a perfect mix for this historic blaze in eastern arizona, smoke spread as far as new mexico and colorado. >> that would be horrible. >> reporter: the fire is a week old blanketing 140,000 acres. on the scene, 1300 firefighters from across the country. but the numbers were no match to mother nature. >> the column that's up in the air is about two days of being in excess of 30,000 feet. if you have something that large and that huge, it generates its own weather. >> reporter: not just arizona baking. record shattering temperatures have melted the south and the

midsection. >> the nation up in the north in the mid to upper 90s. this is catching a lot of folks off guard. >> reporter: including in chicago where heat and humidity hovered over the half marathon. one man collapsed and died while a dozen other runners were hospitalized. down south, houston recorded 105 degrees yesterday breaking a record set 30 years ago. >> the rest of the country has all of this rain, too much water, we don't have any. >> reporter: by the way, summer won't even be here for another two weeks. frances coe, nbc news. as summerlike heat scorches the west, the remnants of winter and steady spring rains are forcing folks in the upper midwest out of their homes. evacuation orders have been issued for 600 residents in southwest iowa after a missouri river levee was breached. yesterday the management team air dropped thousands of sandbags calling the job too

dangerous for ground crews. the river isn't expected to crest until mid to late june. overseas where agriculture officials in germany believe vegetable sprouts are at the root of the e. coli outbreak. beans and sprouts grown on an organic farm in germany are linked to infections in five states. it's clachled 22 lives and sickened 2200. four of the sickened victims are americans who travelled to germany. israel is bracing for more violence a day after deadly clashes between border troops and protesters killed 20 demonstrators and wounded scores more. on the 44th anniversary of israeli's capture of the goland heights. the protest group began on facebook. israel claims the clashes were a

syrian spoke screen designed to divert attention on the crackdown of the bloody opposition protest at home. other stories making news early today in america. plans to transport the plane tho known for the miraculous landing on the hudson river. a new jersey intersection was not wide enough for a tractor trailer towing the aircraft. the aircraft is scheduled to arrive on friday in the aviation museum in north carolina. a group of about 50 people broke out their best moves in the nation's capitol to protest recent arrests on a ban on dancing in the jefferson memorial. park police did not make any arrests. but they did force out the protesters before closing the memorial for a short time. in southern california, it was surf's up for dozens of dogs

at the sixth annual surf dog competition. the dogs needed to catch at least two waves and more importantly, look good doing it. it wasn't just dog biscuits on the line, the top prizes included vacations for the dogs an their owners. in missouri, no holds barred for a few brides to be hoping to win some prizes before their big day. competitors at the sixth annual cake dive dove head first and put their sweet tooth to work. prizes for the best dive included gifter er icertificat honeymoon vacation. now for a look at your national and regional weather, bill karins has the forecast. before you ask me, i know you ear going to, i was not a bri bridezilla. a chill bride. >> by your standards? >> ask my husband. i swear. talk about the heat. that's a huge story over the past weekend. can you believe how hot it was in houston.

record high, not just for the day, but the warme esest temperatures we've had in june. 105 degrees, incredible stuff for this early in the season. record highs in six different states. so not just one isolated area. we had record highs from colorado, arkansas, tennessee, wide spread in mississippi, louisiana, and areas of east texas. lake charles was 102. not like you were alone there in houston at 105. there was some beautiful weather this weekend. the great lakes and up in the northeast where temperatures were cool. why is it so hot? why does it feel like the middle of summer out there? a huge ridge of high pressure that built right over the top of the south and right over the heartland. and the jet stream is not moving much. it was a big dip. it was cool and rainy out west and cool in new england. all of the heat is just right in the middle and there's not much rain to cool you off. a couple of thunderstorms pop up here and there. you're lucky if you saw it rain. the hot weather will be on the

spread as we go throughout this week. today, still in the middle of the country. by the middle of the week, it heads to the mid atlantic and the east coast. that's a look at the national forecast. now a look at the weather outside of your win doe. chance of thunderstorms in the northern plains, michigan and wisconsin. more in the ohio valley. milwaukee a chan for a thunderstorm, chicago too. how hot it is, dallas, 98, denver, 94. what's the rest of the summer going to bring if it's already this hot? >> no kidding. i don't want to know about august. >> thanks so much. a hack attack on a major gainer. apple ready to see jobs return. and how pinching pennies landed one man in hot water. your early morning business headlines are ahead. and a pair of mutants at the box office. the heat holds on, the king of clay reigns in paris, and fat albert takes another bite out of

the cub bis. you're watching "early today."

good morning. welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here's some of your top headline this is morning. in yemen, anti-government protesters have been celebrating the departure of their president. he's in saudi arabia recovering from an operation to remove shrapnel from the rocket attack. 11 people die in that assault. but the wounded leader is returning to power despite months of protest calling for his departure. >> in pakistan, a bombing claimed two dozen people. one attack happened at a bakery declaring 18 dead. the pakistani taliban have taken credit for other attacks saying they're avenging the death of osama bin laden. a pakistani security officials said authorities are nearly certain that a recent strike killed ilias kashmiri.

he's believed to have been replacing bin laden as the chief. the field for presidential contenders will get more crowded today. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum is expected to officially kick off hissed by for the gop nomination. volcanic ash from chile has been raining down on argentina. the volcano erupted this weekend after being dormant for half a century. so far, thousands have been evacuated. no injuries have been reported. now, an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,155 after losing 97 points on friday. s&p is down 12 points. the nasdaq dropped 40. taking a look at overseas trading this morning. in tokyo, the nikkei lost 111 points. and in hong kong, the hang seng was closed for a holiday. and wall street has been to the first full week of june. triggers will likely remain on

edge following friday's disappointing may jobs report. last month, employers added the most new workers in eight months pushing the unemployment rate up from 1.9% to 9%. that spurred a selloff and offered evidence of what many are calling a soft patch in the economy. shares of tokyo electric power plunged 24% dragging down the nikkei. yesterday, tepco acknowledged 24,000 more tons were being removed and put into storage at the fukushima daiichi plant. and scrambling to recover from attacks on hackers. the attack on nintendo seems to be less serious than the sony playstation security breach. looking ahead, opec's gathering in vienna could be the petroleum group's most contentious in years.

it faces pressure to respond to triple digit oil prices. back here at home, apple ceo and co-founder steve jobs makes a big return from medical leave to deliver a keynote speech in california. a new operating system and cloud computing service are expected to be among today's highlightings. and finally, the average penny pincher has nothing on one man in utah who's been cited for disorderly conduct after paying a disputed medical bill with 2500 pennies. he now faces a fine of $140, or 14,000 pennies. coming up from ejections to players. a wild night in the diamondbacks-nationals game. and miami's lebron james hammers home game three of the nba finals. your early morning sports headlines are ahead. in weather, wide-spread record heat continues and a sneak peek with the tropics,

including something interesting for me. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today ". and in sports, a dramatic victory in dallas last night with dirk nowitzki just unable to come through for the mav vicks this time around. here's nbc's mario solis with an

early look at all of your sports headlines. hi there, good morning, time and time again, the mavericks' dirk nowitzki has been able to hit the big shot when the team needed it the most. not last night. game three of the finals in dallas, if you don't already know, lebron james is good, real good. huge dunk in the first quarter heat up by five at the break. they lead by as many as 14. the mavs don't go quietly. nowitzki late in the fourth to tie it. it's not lebron or dwyane wade that hits it big shot, but chris bosch nails the jumper to give miami the lead. dirk with the fallaway with the tie, off the mark. the heat holds on to take game three, 88-86. they lead the sere rez 2-1. rafael nadal beat roger federer in a final to win the french open. raffa got 56 unforced errors.

nadal wins the sixth french open and tenth major. from the clay to the asphalt, brent lozlowski won. dale earnhardt jr. took second. deja vu all over again, pujols with a walkoff home run. he did it again yesterday. fat albert is a walk-off bomb in the tenth inning. cards rally to win 3-2. strange play. jason marquis is hit in the stomach by the pitch. take your base, right? wait a second, not so fast. he swung the bat. that's a strike and a painful one at that. to the 11th. here's a strike that michael morris takes for a ride. clears the bases for a grand slam nationals break it open and win this one 9-4. that's a look at sports on "early today." i'm mario solis. >> "early today" sports is brought to you by ice blue aqua

velva. >> prequels and sequels dominate theaters this weekend. plus, why one group of mall santas say giving is a year-round job. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this monday. over the weekend, we almost had a tropical depression form just south of jamaica. it kind of flared up and now

it's died off a little bit. we have about 24 hours before the winds would knock it off. it wouldn't surprise me if it does form more. if it does, regardless, it has no chance of reaching the gulf or areas of florida. it was the chance of becoming the first storm of the season. the heat is wide spread, denver, kansas city, st. louis, in the deep south. a little cooler today in houston, thankfully. because yesterday it was 105. if you're watching us on wgrz channel 2 in buffalo, new york, experience the genius of leonardo da vinci to machines in motion at the buffalo museum of science. that's the early today event of the day. now an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. hollywood continues the summer box office terror with "the x-men" leading the charge. "x-men first class" earned $56 million in the debut weekend.

last weekend's top movie "hangover part ii" hung in there adding $34.4 million adding to its total. "kung fu panda 2" with $24.3 million in the second weekend. "pirates of the caribbean: on stranger tides" took fourth place and bumping the three-week earnings to $190 million. and fifth place, "bridesmaids" held up well earning another $12.1 million bringing the four-week total to $107 million. and finally, the flick franchise "twilight" dominated the mtv movie awards for a third year in a row. the "twilight saga eclipse" ended up with five popcorn trophies including best movies, male and female performances, and best kiss. as a twi-hard, you were relieved they showed the preview of the

trailer, "new dawn." is that the next one. >> i saw the first one, that was the end of the series for me. >> i don't believe you. >> the part he's running up the christmas tree. >> oh, it's getting aeven bette. this comes to us from ksas 9 news in denver, colorado where nearby idaho springs volunteers are proving the season of giving can last all year long. billy lee is well known for playing santa claus in local malls. two months after an accident left him unable to care for his animals. the society of santas are pitching in. they appoint add group of santa helpers to tend to his farm so that they can say they have done so much for others. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

>> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good boy, everyone. -- good morning, everyone. low 60's cost in most locations. 64 at the airport. mostly sunny today. high temperature in the low 80's today. >> 4:57. here's a look ahead to 11 news today. >> some workers in harford thwarted a robbery

account. >> unemployment is high. the latest coming upper. >> some closures in the city. will have do you as to what to

ou

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> your monday morning. i am mindy basara. >> and i am stan stovall. thank you for joining us this morning. >> tony pann has a check of the forecast. >>it will be a nice day today. it was a pretty decent weekend. heat will come back pretty soon.