Week in Insights: This One’s Going to Be a Scorcher

Temperatures are expected to hit 97 degrees Fahrenheit in Pennsylvania this weekend. Even for this former southerner, that’s hot. My grandmother would say it’s “hotter than blue blazes.”

It may be similarly sizzling where you are—more than 100 million people in the mainland US are currently under heat alerts. And about 60 million Americans in at least 16 states are expected to hit triple-digit highs, with a half-dozen additional states reaching the high 90s as the month goes on.

My good friend who lives near Dallas regularly jokes that she “lives on the sun,” but even folks in Texas are ...