Benjamin Thompson

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746 appearances 10 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 2 Sep

Benjamin Thompson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 5.

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Nature Podcast · Highest-ever ocean temperatures recorded as El Niño intensifies · 26 Aug 2026 podcast

Welcome back to the Nature Podcast.

This week, how ocean temperatures have reached a record

This week the Earth saw an inauspicious record being broken, with the global average sea surface temperatures reaching their highest ever recorded levels, beating a previous high seen in twenty twenty four.

Here to talk about it and what it might mean is a new voice in the pod, Nature Reporter James Denin, who's been covering the story.

James, thank you for being with us today.

So let's talk about the record itself, James, and what this number is, because it's important to remember this is an average.

There are some caveats to this.

And it beats all other records as well, going back to what, the nineteen seventies, is that right?

And what's striking about this individual record and this high temperature, which was beaten on Saturday, is that it's not just the high number, it was when it happened.

So it happened in August, which is unusual in terms of sea surface temperatures.

So things have shifted then from what I guess March is the usual high temperature right to August.

And a lot of the reasons for this rise have been maybe attributed to El Nino, this climate phenomenon where warm water moves west to east across the Pacific and have all sorts of severe knock on effects.

Is that what's going on here, do we think?

Right, because in your reporting you write that, you know, we're seeing temperature rises in various oceans, not just the Pacific and

That can't all be to do with El Nino.

And this week's event isn't in isolation, right?

This heat comes after records fell in twenty three and twenty four as well, right?

There is a pattern developing here.

But of course, it really has only just started, right, in terms of the cycle it's in.

What do researchers think might happen in the forthcoming months?

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