Ground Temps Reached 118°F in the Arctic Circle Last Week

From the linked Gizmodo article:

> The air temperature in Verkhojansk was 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius)—still anomalously hot, but not Arizona hot.

https://gizmodo.com/ground-temperatures-hit-118-degrees-in-t...

I'm not sure what the deal is with reporting ground temperature, but it seems like click baiting to me. What was your city's ground temperature yesterday? You're not likely to know. What was the air temperature? That you know.

The article doesn't even mention the air temperature for comparison.

What's worse is the the Pacific Northwest of the US has recently seen air temperature highs above 100 F. So this article is misleadingly trying to draw an associate to that event.

I can imagine the conversations now...

A: Did you hear about the heat in Oregon?

B: That's nothing. It was 118 IN THE ARTIC CIRCLE!

The obvious question raised here is "How does ground temp compare to normal temp?" From Googling, it looks like it generally is more extreme (think parking lot vs air above parking lot), perhaps up to 12 degrees warmer.