2023-07-29 03:41:39
The waters of the North Atlantic Ocean broke a daily heat record on Wednesday, according to preliminary data released Friday by the United States Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observations (NOAA) “According to our analysis, the average temperature record of the surface water in the North Atlantic is 24.9°C, and was observed on July 26,” said Xungang Yin, a scientist at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
This record is particularly striking because it comes early in the year, with the North Atlantic typically reaching its peak heat in early September. “Given how hot the surface temperature in the North Atlantic is right now (and has been for weeks), there is little doubt that the record set in early September 2022 will be broken. this summer,” a Copernicus spokesperson said earlier in the day.
The North Atlantic, which has been breaking seasonal records since March to the surprise of scientists, has become an emblematic observation point for the overheating of the planet’s oceans under the effect of global warming caused by greenhouse-effect gas.
The North Atlantic is in uncharted territory.
The entire ocean basin is a record-smashing 1.5°C above normal, as millions of square miles of ocean experience strong to severe marine heatwaves.
Off the coast of Canada, ocean temperatures are up to 9°C (16°F) above average!… pic.twitter.com/AuPBCc82eX
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 22, 2023
Copernicus’ most recent measurement, not definitive, dates back to July 26 with 24.70°C and “remains below the September 2022 record” set at 24.81°C in their ERA5 database which dates back to 1979. But “it is possible that this record will be broken when the data is updated over the weekend or early next week”, it was specified.
“This situation is extreme”
And the curve should continue to rise since “in the seasonal cycle, the temperature peak of the North Atlantic generally takes place at the end of August-beginning of September”, recalls Karina Von Schuckmann, of the European research center Mercator Océan international (MOi) . “This situation is extreme: we have already experienced marine heat waves before, but here it is very persistent and distributed over a large surface” of the North Atlantic, underlines the oceanographer.
She recalls that the oceans absorbed 90% of the excess heat of the Earth system caused by human activity during the industrial era. And “this energy buildup has doubled over the past two decades,” fueling global warming of the oceans. At the global level, the average temperature of the oceans has been breaking seasonal records constantly since the beginning of April.
Many observers scrutinize potential records using another measurement system, published on the Climate Reanalyzer website based on public data from the United States Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation Agency (NOAA). For this tool, the daily averages in recent days (24.9 ° C) are at the record level of early September 2022. But according to a NOAA spokesperson, this database “is not the best to establish this type of record”.
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