researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’
International Arctic Research Center. Alaska
has seen “multiple decades-long increases” in
temperature, he said.
“It becomes easier to have these unusual
sets of conditions that now lead to records,”
Brettschneider said.
Alaska’s average temperature in July was 58.1
degrees (14.5 Celsius). That’s 5.4 degrees (3
Celsius) above average and 0.8 degrees (0.4
Celsius) higher than the previous warmest
month of July 2004, NOAA said.
The effects were felt from the Arctic Ocean
to the world’s largest temperate rainforest on
Alaska’s Panhandle.
Anchorage, the state’s largest city, on July 4 for
the first time hit 90 degrees (32.22 Celsius) at
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, 5
degrees higher than the city’s previous recorded
high of 85 degrees (29.44 Celsius).
Sea ice off Alaska’s north and northwest shore
and other Arctic regions retreated to the lowest
level ever recorded for July, according to the
National Snow and Ice Data Center at the
University of Colorado.
Arctic sea ice for July set a record low of
2.9 million square miles (7.6 million square
kilometers). That was a South Carolina-size
loss of 30,900 square miles (80,000 square
kilometers) below the previous record low July
in 2012.
Sea ice is the main habitat for polar bears and a
resting platform for female walruses and their
young. Several thousand walruses came to shore
July 30, the first time they’ve been spotted in
such large numbers before August.
Effects were less obvious in the Bering Sea off
Alaska’s west coast. Lyle Britt, a NOAA Fisheries
antfer
(Antfer)
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