The world's oceans have set a new temperature record, in a fresh sign of how quickly the seas are warming. According to Sky News, the all-time high for sea surface temperature has just been smashed, and it has been broken in records that stretch all the way back to 1979. The milestone underlines the scale of the heat now stored in the world's waters.
The figures come from Copernicus, the European Union's climate modelling service, which tracks daily ocean surface temperatures averaged across the entire globe. The latest daily mean stands at 21.1 degrees Celsius, a level that is nearly a full degree warmer than the long-term average for the world's seas.
What makes the record especially striking is its timing. It is being set in August, even though the global ocean does not typically reach its warmest average until February or March. A peak at this point in the year is well outside the normal seasonal pattern, which is part of what has caught the attention of scientists.
The last time the oceans peaked in August was in 2023, and that too was an unusual year. It was an El Nino year, and Sky News points to that as the clue to what is happening now. The pattern of an out-of-season high has appeared before, and it has tended to coincide with the same underlying driver in the Pacific.
That driver is once again at work. The oceans are already responding to an extremely powerful El Nino brewing in the Pacific, a natural phenomenon that pushes global temperatures higher. Because of it, forecasters expect ocean temperatures to remain elevated as the El Nino builds toward its peak, which is anticipated in November.
The consequences reach far beyond the water itself. Ocean heat helps to drive the world's weather, increasing the power of storms and the amount of moisture that can eventually fall as rain. Warmer seas effectively load the atmosphere with more energy, raising the risk of heavier and more violent weather.
For that reason, the record is being read as a warning about the months to come. Sky News reports that many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, are in for more wild weather as the El Nino intensifies. The new high is a stark reminder of how the oceans are responding to a changing climate, and of how those changes ripple back onto land.