Average temperature for month amid Arctic heatwave was 58.1F (14.5C), nearly 1F above previous high set in July 2004

“Climate change is happening faster than it’s ever happened before in our record,” Utquiagvik-based NOAA scientist Bryan Thomas said. “We’re right in the middle of it.”

The top of the world saw record-beating average temperatures flashing through all three summer months.

2018 was “the fourth-warmest year in Nome’s weather history,” says climate specialist Rick Thoman. In fact, for most places in Western Alaska, 2018 ranked among the top five warmest years on record…

This July was the warmest ever recorded in Reykjavík. In some other parts of the country, July was among the top three or four ever recorded.

Forecasters expect temperatures in Anchorage to fall back down into the high 70s and low 80s by next Friday — though that’s still about 10 degrees warmer than the average for this time of year.

Scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have declared 2018 the fourth warmest year on record. It ranks behind 2016, 2017 and 2015, respectively. And it's only going to get warmer from here, they predict.

It was the hottest summer in the 174-year history of weather records in Helsinki, and the second hottest in the 118-year history of the weather station in Sodankylä, Lapland.

All-time record highs for June have already been topped, but all-time records for any month of the year could be threatened this weekend.

When temperatures soar this high above the Arctic Circle, it’s an attention-grabber.