It was hotter in Alaska than in New York City this week

New Yorkers at the beach during a 2013 heat wave
(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

A massive heat wave this coming week will affect most of the contiguous United States, but record temperatures have already struck in Alaska, where a high of 88 degrees in Fairbanks on Wednesday was warmer than New York City. A town called Deadhorse on Alaska's northern coast, inside the Arctic Circle, hit an all-time high of 85, nearly 30 degrees above its typical temperature for this time of year.

For those of us in the lower 48 — especially in the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeast regions — the upcoming heat wave, with highs in the 100s throughout the center of the country, may make July the hottest month on record in America.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.