Ocean heat is off the charts – here's what that means for humans and ecosystems around the world
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Wednesday, June 21, 2023
People, Sea, Risk, Food, Galápagos Islands, Aerosol, Atmosphere, Wildfire, Agriculture, America's Marine Highway, Movement, El Niño, Drought, Biodiversity, Water, Dust, Climate, Weather, Mortality, Lion's mane jellyfish, Death, NORCE, Shipbuilding, Whaling, Coal, Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, Spice, Seaweed, Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean
The sea of Japan is more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average.
Key Points:
- The sea of Japan is more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average.
- The Indian monsoon, closely tied to conditions in the warm Indian Ocean, has been well below its expected strength.
- Spain, France, England and the whole Scandinavian Peninsula are also seeing rainfall far below normal, likely connected to an extraordinary marine heat wave in the eastern North Atlantic.
- La Niña has a cooling effect globally that helps keep global sea surface temperatures in check but can also mask global warming.
The effects of extraordinary Atlantic heat
- The warm waters and mild winds across the eastern North Atlantic brought a long stretch of sunny, warm weather in a month when more than 70% of days normally would have been downpours.
- Many scientists have speculated on the causes of the eastern North Atlantic’s unusually high temperatures, and several studies are underway.
A weakened monsoon in South Asia
- That may be happening – the monsoon was much weaker than normal from mid-May to mid-June 2023.
- That can be a problem for a large part of South Asia, where most of the agriculture is still rain-fed and depends heavily on the summer monsoon.
North American hurricane season up in the air
In the Atlantic, the weakening trade winds with El Niño tend to tamp down hurricane activity, but warm Atlantic temperatures can supercharge those storms. Whether the ocean heat, if it persists into fall, will override El Niño’s effects remains to be seen.
Risk of marine heat waves in South America
- Marine heat waves can also have huge impacts on marine ecosystems, bleaching coral reefs and causing the death or movement of entire species.
- Coral-based ecosystems are nurseries for fish that provide food for 1 billion people around the world.
These kinds of risks are increasing
- At the same time, the warming of the oceans and atmosphere increase the chances for this kind of ocean warming.
- People will have to adapt to a warming climate in which extreme events are more likely and learn how to mitigate their impact.