When thinking about how hot it is, people tend to think about air temperature because that’s what they experience in everyday life, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
But most of the heat stored near the Earth’s surface is not in the atmosphere, but in the oceans. And this spring and summer saw some record ocean temperatures. The North Atlantic is currently experiencing the warmest surface water temperatures ever recorded.
This marine heatwave has been particularly pronounced around the coast of Great Britain, with some areas experiencing temperatures of up to 5 degrees Celsius above what would normally be expected for this time of year.
At the same time, high temperatures were also recorded in the tropical Pacific. Global sea surface temperatures for April and May were the highest ever recorded in Met Office records since 1850.
