According to European Space Agency (ESA), seas around the United Kingdom and Ireland have experienced some of the most extreme rises in sea surface temperature anywhere on Earth.
According to ESA and the Met Office research, water temperatures in some regions are as much as three to four degrees Celsius (F) higher than the norm for this time of year.
According to the Met Office’s findings, part of the reason is climate change driven by humans.
However, additional natural and artificial variables, some poorly understood, appear to be pushing temperatures further higher.
According to the data provided by ESA, the ocean water that surrounds almost the entire coastline of the British Isles is significantly warmer than it often is.
Scientists have issued warnings that heat waves of this intensity can destroy fish and other forms of marine life, sometimes on a massive scale.
Marine heatwaves, which are extended periods of sea surface temperatures that are unusually high, are also related to more extreme weather. Storm systems pick up more energy during marine heatwaves, allowing them to grow more intensely and stay longer.
The air and ocean surface temperatures worldwide have been climbing quickly over the past few months, which explains why the sea near the United Kingdom is so warm.
According National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States, the average temperature of the ocean in May was 0.85 degrees Celsius, higher than what is considered usual for the month.
There has been a string of exceptionally hot weather occurrences all across the world, with the abnormally high temperatures helping to fuel the record-breaking wildfires in Canada that have covered New York and other cities in North America in a veil of smoke.
The Asian region has also been impacted; monthly temperature records have been broken in China and in some regions of Siberia.
At the same time, the amount of sea ice that has formed in the Antarctic is at a record low for this time of year, setting a new low by a significant margin.
The array of global temperature records does not convince Professor Albert Klein Tank, the head of the climate research centre at Hadley, which is part of the Met Office, that the Earth has reached some type of climate tipping point.
According to what he has said, “All of these elements are part of natural variation within the climate system, and they are coming together to elevate sea-surface temperatures to higher levels.”
Even into this month, the temperatures have remained at an abnormally high level.
According to European Union’s Copernicus climate and weather monitoring agency a week ago, the first 11 days of June were the hottest ever recorded for this time of year anywhere in the world.
According to what was found, June is the first month in which average worldwide air temperatures have risen over their pre-industrial values by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The majority opinion among scientists is that it is absolutely necessary to maintain long-term global temperatures at or below that 1.5C threshold in order to avert most severe effects of the climate change.
However, it is anticipated that these present high temperatures will only be temporary; the 1.5C barrier refers to the average temperatures over a period of 20 or 30 years.
However, meteorologists anticipate that even more temperature records will be broken over the next few months. This is due to the fact that an El Nio phenomenon is predicted to continue to warm the Pacific Ocean over the next few months.
Already, researchers are projecting that it will make 2024 the hottest year on record for the whole planet.
The El Nio weather pattern is the most significant climate shift that may occur in any place on the planet.
When warm waves come to the surface off the coast of South America and spread over the ocean, sending significant heat into the atmosphere, the El Nio Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, to give it its official name, is going into its hot phase.
However, the North Atlantic is experiencing the most significant rise in sea surface temperature at the present time.
According to the Met Office’s records, the temperature departure in May was the largest ever seen in a single month, coming in at 1.25 degrees Celsius higher than the long-term normal.
Although researchers are unsure of the exact cause of the record-breaking warmth observed in the waters near the United Kingdom and throughout the North Atlantic, they agree that climate change is almost probably a significant contributor. Temperatures on all continents are rising as a direct result of human activity, specifically the continued emission of large quantities of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
However, there are most certainly also other elements at play here.
According to Professor Michael Mann of Penn State University, an atmospheric scientist, weaker winds than typical have lowered the amount of dust from the Sahara Desert that is present in the atmosphere.
The dust from the Sahara both absorbs and reflects part of the sun’s energy, which has the effect of lowering the temperature of the ocean.
This year has seen abnormally weak trade winds, and at the same time, a continuous weather pattern with easterly winds from the mainland United States may also have contributed to the warming of the sea surface.
The impact of a reduction in the pollution caused by ships could be another element to consider.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) decided in the year 2020 to implement regulations that would lower the amount of sulphur that might be found in fuel used by ships.
The removal of aerosols, which contaminate the air but also help reflect heat back into space, may have resulted in an increase in the amount of heat that was absorbed by the water.
It would appear that the effects of the abnormally high temperatures in the North Atlantic are already starting to make themselves known.
According to the Met Office, an Atlantic tropical storm is likely to form east of the Caribbean by the middle of this week. The eastern tropical Atlantic is the primary breeding ground for North Atlantic hurricanes.
According to Julian Heming, a meteorologist at the Met Office who specializes in tropical cyclones, the development of a storm in that region at such an early point in the season is highly unusual.
The development of hurricanes is generally inhibited during El Nio periods; however, the forecast issued by the Met Office indicates that there will be an above average season for tropical storms and cyclones in the North Atlantic basin this year as a result of the high surface temperatures.
The Met Office has informed us that we should anticipate the hot weather to persist.
According to this forecast, there is a 45% possibility that the United Kingdom will experience a “hot summer,” which is a substantially higher probability than is typically seen for this time of year.
