In Hot Water: World Ocean Temps Set Record

July Was Hottest the World's Oceans have been in Almost 130 Years

(AP)  Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean this week — in Maine.

The water temperature was 72 degrees — more like Ocean City, Md., this time of year. And Ocean City's water temp hit 88 degrees, toasty even by Miami Beach standards.

Kramer, 26, who lives in the seaside town of Scarborough, said it was the first time he's ever swam so long in Maine's coastal waters.

It's not just the ocean off the Northeast coast that is super-warm this summer. July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping.

The average water temperature worldwide was 62.6 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. June was only slightly cooler, while August could set another record, scientists say. The previous record was set in July 1998 during a powerful El Nino.

Meteorologists said there's a combination of forces at work: A natural El Nino weather pattern just getting started on top of worsening man-made global warming, and a dash of random weather variations. The resulting ocean heat is already harming threatened coral reefs. It could also hasten the melting of Arctic sea ice and help hurricanes strengthen.

The Gulf of Mexico, where warm water fuels hurricanes, has temperatures dancing around 90. Most of the water in the Northern Hemisphere has been considerably warmer than normal. The Mediterranean is about three degrees warmer than normal. Higher temperatures rule in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The phenomena is most noticeable near the Arctic, where water temperatures are as much as 10 degrees above average. The tongues of warm water could help melt sea ice from below and even cause thawing of ice sheets on Greenland, said Waleed Abdalati, director of the Earth Science and Observation Center at the University of Colorado.

Breaking heat records in water is more ominous as a sign of global warming than breaking temperature marks on land, because water takes longer to heat up and does not cool off as easily as land.

"This warm water we're seeing doesn't just disappear next year; it'll be around for a long time," said climate scientist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. It takes five times more energy to warm water than land.

The warmer water "affects weather on the land," Weaver said. "This is another yet really important indicator of the change that's occurring."

Georgia Institute of Technology atmospheric science professor Judith Curry said water is warming in more places than usual, something that has not been seen in more than 50 years.

Add to that an unusual weather pattern this summer where the warmest temperatures seem to be just over oceans, while slightly cooler air is concentrated over land, said Deke Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the climate data center.

The pattern is so unusual that he suggested meteorologists may want to study that pattern to see what's behind it.

The effects of that warm water are already being seen in coral reefs, said C. Mark Eakin, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's coral reef watch. Long-term excessive heat bleaches colorful coral reefs white and sometimes kills them.

Bleaching has started to crop up in the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Typically, bleaching occurs after weeks or months of prolonged high water temperatures. That usually means September or even October in the Caribbean, said Eakin. He found bleaching in Guam Wednesday. It's too early to know if the coral will recover or die. Experts are "bracing for another bad year," he said.

The problems caused by the El Nino pattern are likely to get worse, the scientists say.

An El Nino occurs when part of the central Pacific warms up, which in turn changes weather patterns worldwide for many months. El Nino and its cooling flip side, La Nina, happen every few years.

During an El Nino, temperatures on water and land tend to rise in many places, leading to an increase in the overall global average temperature. An El Nino has other effects, too, including dampening Atlantic hurricane formation and increasing rainfall and mudslides in Southern California.

Warm water is a required fuel for hurricanes. What's happening in the oceans "will add extra juice to the hurricanes," Curry said.

Hurricane activity has been quiet for much of the summer, but that may change soon, she said. Hurricane Bill quickly became a major storm and the National Hurricane Center warned that warm waters are along the path of the hurricane for the next few days.

Hurricanes need specific air conditions, so warmer water alone does not necessarily mean more or bigger storms, said James Franklin, chief hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

[nomealaska]

The wingnut Republicans are content with a 6,000 year old universe, dinosaur fossils as a test of our faith, creation in 6 days, and cherrypicking and distort selected phrases from a book written by men who would have themselve been willing to consider science as it tries to explain the wonder of the world with real facts based upon observations. Let the flat earth live on chimps... just don't eat any genetical modified food!

Meanwhile, the thinking people of the planet see the changes happening around the world. At least scientists are trying to find answers instead of wasting everbody's time with this junk-religion crap.

[Richard_Saunders]

Can someone point me to credible calculations that show global warming is man made?

All I've found so far is Ice Core Data which shows a correlation between temperature at the poles of the planet and CO2 levels.

No real calculations, or data related to North America.

[OregonJames]

People will never understand the changes in the earth's temperatures until they understand where the earth's heat comes from. Almost everyone will tell you the earth is warmed by sunlight, and they are partially correct. When the sun shines on you it provides heat. However, if it was just sunlight that heated the earth, the earth's surface would be much hotter than its core, just as a metal ball being heated by a torch is hotter on the surface, but the earth is molten at its core, not the surface. The earth is heated from within. It is not caused by sunlight, but magnetic and tidal forces caused by the rotation of the earth around the sun and the forces applied by the orbit of our moon.

Any change in the orbit of the earth or moon, any change in the magnetic field created by or sun or even the chemical composition of the core of our planet would create changes in the amount of heat generated within earth's core.

The world is a much more dynamic place than people can comprehend. We have much to learn...

[sjc_1]

I do not know what the annual average temperature for the ocean off of Maine is this time of year, but I heard that it was 72F right now. That seems pretty warm to me. They said it was a combination of El Nino and Global Warming but whatever the cause it seems higher than normal and it is cause for concern.

[cbs_tom]

"who should we believe?, the bible and those republicans and christians who always said in the past that the earth was flat and that god was p1ss1ng on us to explain rain while burning dissenters at the stake"?

The Bible and Republicans have stated that the earth is flat? Get your history right!

[Wolf1944]

When William Jennings Bryan was leading the fundamentalist movement, he began to lose some followers because he admitted to believing the earth was round. They pointed out that the Devil took Jesus up on a mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth. Now, if the earth was round, they said, you wouldn't be able to see all the kingdoms no matter how tall that mountain was.

L. Sprague DeCamp's excellent The Great Monkey Trial is very enlightening.

[cleric60]

What organization/nation/group has been recording the temperature of our oceans for over 130 years????? Is this a theory or a man made myth?

[mejordelahistoria]

who should we believe?, the bible and those republicans and christians who always said in the past that the earth was flat and that god was p1ss1ng on us to explain rain while burning dissenters at the stake?.... or scientists, people who went to school several years, who work in an environment where the possibility of arguing and counter arguing is possible and came up with vaccines, took us to the moon, created vehicles for us to move faster and relied on science and logic to cure us instead of relying on prayer and other demented ignorant beliefs?. The article is correct, informative and very interesting and it's supported by scientists, it just adds another piece to the puzzle of global warming and a nail to the coffin of those who are unreasonable and illogical. It's funny to see that those who debunk science and say everything is OK are the same ones who today are constructing shelters in the back of their houses and preaching that the end is near...... go figure.

[Wolf1944]

Read Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science. It's an eye-opener.

[ubrew12]

Is Global Warming real and human caused? 51% of Americans don't think so.

Is Global Warming real and human caused? only 16% of American Scientists don't think so.

Ask yourself who would know. That poll is a reflection of how incredibly stupid the typical American is (you don't need to tell the rest of the world that, of course. They actually have TV shows about how stupid typical Americans are)

[seafang]

Well the believable ocean temperature data only goes back to about 1980, whent he ARGO buoys were set out in the oceans. They revealed as reported in Jan 2001, that ocean water temperatures, and oceanic air temperatures aren't correlated; which means you can't recover one from the other.
1979 was also the launch of the first polar orbit satellites that can actually monitor sea surface temeperatures (and arctic ice) properly. and they don't show any signs of ocean warming.

So that 130 year history is BS

[gunownerdan]

To the earth 130 years is a blink of an eye. CBS should try going back a million years and then get back to us!

[richdog_57]

And where I live in NW Iowa, we had the coldest July in history.

[lloydbest1]

Yeah, that's a bit odd. Des Moines and Sioux City went more than four degrees below average and Mason City was nearly six degrees below normal.
On the other hand....Seattle checked in with 4 degree above average, Portland had it's warmenst July and second warmest month ever and tiny McGrath Alaska, buried in the interior, was nearly 6 degrees above its July norm.
So before you break out the cough syrup consider that your up to now rotten summer (and it was rotten, I wouldn't want it) was very likely a one-off. Also bear in mind that if the climate prediction wonks get it right and we do get that strong El Nino everyone keeps talking about you and your neighbors will be in for a pleasant surprise come winter.