Some scientists are concerned the scale of these new records could mark the start of an alarming trend. “These temperatures just rocketed up, people haven’t had a chance to puzzle it all out,” Johnson said. What’s behind this rapid increase isn’t totally clear yet. The record may not seem huge – it’s nearly two-tenths of a degree higher than the previous record in 2016 – but given how much heat is needed to warm up this huge body of water, “it’s a massive amount of energy,” Matthew England, professor of ocean and climate dynamics at the University of New South Wales, Australia, told CNN. Johnson, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which calculates the ocean surface temperature using a network of ships, buoys, satellites and floats.Īlthough it’s still preliminary data, if it holds up, he said, “this is another milestone.” Temperatures have fallen since their peak in April – as they naturally do in the spring – but they are still higher than they have ever been on record for this time of year. Temperatures began climbing in mid-March and skyrocketed over the course of several weeks, leaving scientists scrambling to figure out exactly why. Ocean surface heat is at record-breaking levels.
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