Warming oceans spell trouble ahead

Global ocean surface temperatures hit a record in recent weeks, triggering alarm among some climate scientists who fear it might be a taste of worse to come. The rapid increase in temperatures has occurred since January this year and reached record levels in early April. They remain near record levels into May. The concern is that more record-setting ocean and land temperatures will occur this year as the world transitions to an El Nino event from a La Nina phase. El Ninos upset global weather patterns and trigger a jump in global temperatures – the world’s hottest year on record was 2016, which was an El Nino year.

The World Meteorological Organisation said last week that there was an 80 per cent chance an El Nino will develop by the end of September. Already, the La Nina pattern of the past three years is fading, along with its cooling effects on the ocean. This is leading to a surge in global ocean surface temperatures, scientists say. The spike in temperatures is above anything in the historical record. In early April, global average ocean surface temperatures – measured between latitude 60 degrees south and latitude 60 degrees north – hit 21.1 deg C, exceeding the 21 deg C record set in 2016. It is also the highest since satellite records began.