BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 17, 2020
The average of surface temperatures taken throughout the day on Aug.14 in the Gulf of Maine, one of the fastest-warming marine bodies of water on Earth, was measured at 69.85 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. The prior record, less than a degree lower than the record set last month, was 68.99 degrees Fahrenheit on Aug. 23, 2012. The records date back to 1982. In addition to recording the highest single-day average temperature in the gulf, the data show that a four-day period from Aug. 13 through 16 — which includes the new single-day record — is the warmest four-day period ever recorded in the gulf.