Highest-ever ocean temperatures recorded as El Niño intensifies
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What record ocean temperature was reported and why is it significant?
An experiment.
Why is blight so far?
Like it sounds so simple. They
had no idea. But now the data's I find this not only refreshing but but at some level astounding. Nature. Welcome back to the Nature Podcast. This week, how ocean temperatures have reached a record
high. And why researchers injected mitochondria into someone's eye. I'm Nick Pertrichow and I'm Benjamin Thompson.
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.
Thanks for having me.
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.
Yeah, so the average sea surface temperature usually just includes the oceans between sixty degrees latitude in both hemispheres. So excluding the polar oceans. And these numbers come from Copernicus, which is Europe's climate reporting service. And just a few days ago they describe the average sea surface temperatures. They just hit twenty one point one degrees Celsius, which beats the March. twenty twenty four record.
And it beats all other records as well, going back to what, the nineteen seventies, is that right?
Yes.
How do scientists explain the August record high sea‑surface temperature?
At least in their satellite records back to the nineteen seventy-nine, but almost certainly further than that.
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.
Right. Normally you would expect the high to come after the southern hemisphere summer, where there's more ocean in the southern hemisphere. But here we see the record high coming in August, and really that bodes poorly for future records falling as we move into twenty twenty seven.
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?
I think you could think about two major factors behind the record-breaking sea surface temperatures. First is the background global warming driven by human greenhouse gas emissions. But then on top of that background rise in temperature, you have the development of an El Nino pattern, which as you described, sees anomalously hot temperatures in the tropical Pacific. And when that happens, it sort of pours heat into the atmosphere. year and raises the overall ocean average, sea surface temperatures. So it's really the combination of an El Nino on top of the background rise in global warming.
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.
One researcher put it to me that basically everywhere you look at the ocean is above average. But where that above average anomaly is most extreme at the moment is in the tropical Pacific. And that is because of uh El Nino pattern that has developed there. Other places that are notably warm include the northwest Pacific, like the Sea of Japan, and then also the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea are also Especially hot at the moment.
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?
What role does the current El Niño play in the extreme ocean heat?
There is a pattern developing here.
In some ways, this is sort of a deja vu moment from twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, which also saw a El Nino pattern develop again on top of the background rise in global warming. But this time, one, there's been a few more years of global warming.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What record ocean temperature was reported and why is it significant?
0:04–1:49
2
How do scientists explain the August record high sea‑surface temperature?
1:49–3:57
3
What role does the current El Niño play in the extreme ocean heat?
3:57–6:17
4
How might this strong El Niño affect global climate trends through 2027?
6:17–9:01
5
Why could the weakening of the ocean carbon sink be a concern for climate change?
9:01–11:43
6
How does the new lightweight astronaut vest reduce radiation exposure in deep space?
11:43–14:01
7
What can thunder‑induced seismic waves reveal about hidden underground geology?
14:01–16:54
8
How are mitochondrial injections being tested as a potential treatment for vision loss?
16:54–18:53
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Nature Podcast
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