Severe US weather: California heat puts firefighters on high alert for wildfires; Canada wildfires cause air quality alerts in US midwest – as it happened

Extreme dry conditions raising fire risk; air quality alert for Minnesota took effect at 8am on Friday

• Hell on earth': Phoenix's extreme heatwave tests limits of survival
• Drained and exhausted': readers on severe heat and floods in US

Vermont governor Phil Scott said his formal request to President Joe Biden for a major disaster declaration has been approved.

The major disaster declaration unlocks federal disaster funds to assist individuals and communities recover from the devastating floods earlier this week.

The disaster declaration provides federal support for recovery. It's separate from, and in addition to, the federal emergency declaration the president already signed when he was overseas to help with the initial emergency phase.

It's incredibly important to get flooded homes, businesses and public buildings as dry as possible to prevent other outcomes like mould. We're working on resources to help with that.

I'm very grateful for the speed of Fema in the White House. It will open up significant federal resources for communities, individuals, businesses [...] In anticipation of these funds, we are working to develop a concrete list of resources to help impacted Vermonters and making sure it's as easy as possible for Vermonters to access those.