United States government scientists say July 2019 was the hottest month on record worldwide. The average temperature in July was almost one degree Celsius higher than the 20th century average of 15.78 degrees. That made it the hottest July on our planet over the past 140 years, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
July 2019 also was the hottest month on record in the northwestern state of Alaska. Sea ice melted. Bering Sea fish swam in above-normal temperatures. So did children in the city of Nome, Alaska. The state’s wildfire season started early and stayed late. Walruses and other sea creatures appeared in large numbers along the coast. Alaska’s average temperature in July was 14.5 degrees Celsius. That is 3 degrees above average, NOAA reported. Unusual weather events like this could become more common with climate warming, notes climate researcher Brian Brettschneider. Sea ice off of Alaska’s north and northwest coast and other Arctic areas shrank to the lowest level ever recorded for July. Arctic sea ice for July set a record low of 7.6 million square kilometers. That represents a loss of 80,000 square kilometers — or about the size of South Carolina — below the old record low, set in July of 2012.
Sea ice is the home for polar bears and a place for female walruses and their young to rest. Several thousand walruses arrived along the coastline on July 30. That reportedly is the first time they have been observed in such large numbers before August.
Brettschneider, the climate researcher, sees mostly negative effects from the hot July and climate warming. Alaska looks the way it does because of its temperatures, he said, and in 50 years, Alaska may look like Idaho.
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