July 18, 2013

Ocean Exploration 2020: A National Forum, will bring together more than 100 ocean explorers and representatives from federal agencies, state governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, ocean institutions and leading industries to shape a U.S. national ocean exploration program. The Forum, to be held at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, July 19-21, will gather experts with the aim of developing a national program that will be fully implemented by 2020.

June 2013 also marked the 37th consecutive June and 340th consecutive month (more than 28 years) with a global temperature above the 20th-century average, according to NOAA scientists. The last below-average June temperature was June 1976, and the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985.