Mediterranean Sea temperatures break 2023 records August 13, 2024

The Mediterranean basin is one of the hotspots of global warming (Ibrahim CHALHOUB)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Mediterranean Sea temperatures break 2023 records

Temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea recently have reached the heat records set last summer, Spain's main maritime research center told AFP on Tuesday, with marine heatwaves in some places exceeding 30 degrees Celsius.

On August 11, the average daily surface temperature of the Mediterranean reached 28.67°C, said Justino Martinez, a researcher at the Institut de Ciencies del Mar in Barcelona and the Catalan Research Institute for the Governance of the Sea.

This is close to July 24, 2023, when the Mediterranean Sea broke its daily heat record with an average temperature of 28.71°C.

The preliminary readings for 2024 come from satellite data from the European Copernicus Observatory.

The Mediterranean basin is one of the hot spots of global warming.

For the second year running, its waters are warmer than the previous record, set on August 23, 2003, when the average daily temperature reached 28.25°C amid an exceptional heatwave.

"What is remarkable is not so much reaching a high on a given day, but observing a long period of high temperatures, even without breaking a record," said Martinez.

"Since 2022, surface temperatures have been abnormally high for long periods, even in an environment of climate change," he said.

This year, the 2023 level was reached "more than 15 days later and, normally, sea surface temperatures in the Mediterranean are expected to decrease from the end of August," he added.

Locally, very unusual waters above 30°C (4°C above normal) were recorded along the coasts of Spain, France, and Italy.

According to scientists, the oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat produced by human activity since the beginning of the industrial age.

This excess heat continues to accumulate in the form of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning oil, gas, and coal.

The overheating of the oceans is expected to impact marine animal and plant life, including the migration of certain species and the spread of invasive species.

This could threaten fish stocks and thus jeopardize food security in certain parts of the globe.

Warmer oceans are also less able to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), reinforcing the vicious cycle of global warming.

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