Wildfires driven by unseasonably warm and dry weather tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, reducing at least two border towns to cinders, destroying dozens of homes and threatening to overwhelm several populated areas including Oklahoma City. [...]

Adverse weather of a very different kind, meanwhile, was assailing California yesterday, as the West Coast was buffeted by its second major rainstorm in three days.

Wildfires driven by unseasonably warm and dry weather tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, reducing at least two border towns to cinders, destroying dozens of homes and threatening to overwhelm several populated areas including Oklahoma City.

Rescue helicopters and air tanker planes were out in force along with fleets of fire trucks as the flames, fanned by moderate winds, consumed tens of thousands of acres of brush and grassland. No new deaths were reported beyond the four people who perished at the start of the fire outbreak last week but handfuls of firefighters were said to have suffered burns and other injuries in their efforts to contain the damage.

In Eastland County, about 125 miles west of Dallas, the single biggest fire stretched over 22,400 acres. Further north on the Oklahoma border, the hamlets of Ringgold and Kokomo were reported to have been entirely destroyed in a fast-moving 13-mile-long blaze.

Several major roads, used by residents to evacuate, have been closed for hours at a time, among them Interstate Highway 35 which connects Oklahoma City and Dallas. A grass fire broke out in the north-eastern suburbs of Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon and destroyed several homes before firefighters managed to contain it.

The city's fire chief said yesterday the danger was far from over. "At this point, we consider the whole city a target for grass fires," Chief Brian Stanaland said.

In Texas, dozens of towns were under threat. Some residents fleeing in their cars and their pick-up trucks looked back to see their houses and barns erupting in flames behind them. In Dallas, a fire broke out in a cemetery.

Temperatures in the region have been close to summer levels. The reading at Dallas-Forth Worth international airport reached 83F at one point - a record for this time of the year. The dry heat has caused problems in other parts of the American West, with smaller brush fires also being reported in western Texas and parts of New Mexico.

Adverse weather of a very different kind, meanwhile, was assailing California yesterday, as the West Coast was buffeted by its second major rainstorm in three days. The banks of the Napa and Russian rivers, north of San Francisco, burst over the weekend, causing extensive damage in the United States' premier wine-growing region. About 750 homes and businesses were flooded out in the city of Napa alone. Three deaths were reported across the region.

In hard-hit San Anselmo, just north of San Francisco, police said the flood that swept through the small city was the worst since 1982. It caused an estimated $30m (£15m) in property damage,

Last night, the worst of the weather was hitting the Los Angeles region, with up to five inches of rain forecast and winds reaching 70 mph in the mountains and along some stretches of the coast. The rain was a disruption to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, a street carnival that precedes the Rose Bowl, the final match in the college football calendar.