World’s oceans hit record high temperature

Seas around the world are so warm right now it’s been likened to getting into a bath. And that’s very bad news.

Waters in The Gulf of Mexico are so warm they are similar to a bath. Picture: Fox8.

In a grim sign for the world’s climate, the temperature of the oceans has hit a new record.

European Union scientists revealed that global average daily sea surface temperatures hit 20.96C last week.

That record occurred on July 30, according to the EU’s Copernicus earth monitoring program.

Climate watchers have said the rising temperatures are a warning given oceans are usually at their hottest globally in March, not August.

“The fact that we’ve seen the record now makes me nervous about how much warmer the ocean may get between now and next March,” Dr Samantha Burgess, from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, told the BBC.

Mediterranean temperatures, seen here in 2022, are above average. Picture: EU Copernicus.

It’s likely the El Nino climate driver is one of the factors behind the rising sea temperatures.

The previous record of 20.95C was reached in March 2016. That was also during an El Nino event.

It’s no surprise then that higher temperatures are coinciding with the climate drivers. The problem is the current El Nino is young and still relatively weak. So weak in fact that it hasn’t yet reached the definition set by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. As such, many scientists feel climate change is a major additional factor in the rising sea temperatures.

And as the El Nino gets stronger the seas may only get hotter.

Earlier in July, water temperatures in The Gulf of Mexico were likened to a “hot tub”.

A marine heatwave saw temperature rise well into the mid-twenties with one buoy off southern Florida recording a high of 36C in shallow water.

“The water feels like a bath when you jump in,” Dr Kathryn Lesneski of the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said of the Gulf of Mexico.

“There is widespread coral bleaching at shallow reefs in Florida and many corals have already died.”

Waters in the Gulf of Mexico are so warm they were likened to a bath. Picture: Fox8.

Waters off the UK and Ireland are also up to 5C warmer than usual.

Oceans soak up around 90 per cent of the excess heat created by human activities. That heat is then distributed around the world’s seas by currents.

The more heat goes into the oceans, the greater the average sea surface temperature rises which can then have effects on marine life, such as coral and fish, as well as the thinning of sea ice.

The number of marine heatwaves has doubled between 1982 and 2016 according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“The more we burn fossil fuels, the more excess heat will be taken out by the oceans, which means the longer it will take to stabilise them and get them back to where they were,” said Dr Burgess.

Originally published as World’s oceans hit record high temperature