NOAA and NASA satellites measured an average sea-surface temperature of 68.93 degrees Fahrenheit in the Gulf of Maine on Aug. 8, only 0.05 degrees below the all-time record high of 68.98 set in 2012. It is the epicenter of the U.S. lobster fishing industry, an important feeding ground for rare North Atlantic right whales .

In 2014, a warm water system — known as the Blob — wreaked havoc in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska. The relationship between extreme weather events and climate change is complicated. But scientists are getting closer to figuring out how the two are linked.

The high temperatures might be left over from the warm-water "blob" off California in 2014.

The town of Lakselv, Norway, located near the Banak Peninsula and more than 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle in far northern Europe, recorded a temperature of 91 degrees on Wednesday and a high of at least 90 degrees twice this week. That's roughly 30 degrees above average for this region of the world.

A marine biologist at the Marine and Freshwater Research institute who specializes in whales says that it’s rare for pilot whales to venture so far north, but said that it’s possible that the pilot whales' appearance in Iceland’s waters can be credited to warming ocean temperatures.