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:

nbc's frances coe reports. >> reporter: the first photos of gabrielle giffords released on her official facebook page. in one, she's shown smiling, her hair shorter and darker than before. in the other picture, the representative is seen with her mother by her side. these are the first clear images of the congresswoman since the january shooting in tucson, arizona, that injured her and 12 others and killed 6. in the months since she suffered a gunshot wound to the head, giffords has been going through rehabilitation at a houston hospital. before these photos, the most recent sighting of giffords was in april, when she left briefly to travel to kennedy space center to see her husband, astronaut mark kelly. >> and liftoff. >> reporter: fly into space on shuttle "endeavour's" last mission. giffords' aides say now that she may be able to leave the hospital again at the end of the month. >> we really had a wonderful conversation. she spoke to me in full sentences, initiated those sentences, instead of just responding. which is what she's really only been able to do recently. she's making rem