The reading on December 26, from a tidal station on Kodiak Island, set a statewide temperature record for December, the National Weather Service reported.
The temperature at the station, in southern Alaska, reached the 19,4°C, Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy in Fairbanks, said on Twitter. “In late December,” he added. “I would not have thought such a thing possible.”
It wasn’t the only weather record to fall this month in towns along the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. A 13,3°C on Dec. 25 in the town of Unalaska, Alaska, appeared to be the state’shighest-ever reliable temperature reading for Christmas Day, Mr. Thoman wrote.
Tying a single heat wave to climate change requires extensive analysis, but scientists say it is abundantly clear that heat waves around the world are growing more frequent, longer lasting and more dangerous.
This year the average temperature for the contiguous United States on Christmas Day was the third warmest since 1900,according to an analysis by Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist in Alaska.
Source: The New York Times
Image: Christopher Miller/The New York Times