'Sea surface temperatures last month were the hottest on record'

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 A worrying sign in the middle of winter.

00:03 Sea surface temperatures last month were the hottest on record, beating extremes seen in

00:09 August 2023, coming in at just over 21 degrees Celsius.

00:14 This is the highest for any month in our data record and interestingly also above that of

00:21 August 2023, which was just a couple of hundred of a degree short of the 21 mark.

00:32 So we are above 21 degrees at the moment, which is the warmest we have ever seen.

00:38 Since last June, Europe's climate monitor Copernicus has registered record sea surface

00:43 temperatures.

00:45 Seas this year, seen in black on this graph, are already higher than 2023, shown in red.

00:52 Higher ocean temperatures have negative consequences for marine life and the climate.

00:57 It explains why we have witnessed extreme weather patterns, a trend that's set to continue.

01:03 We have been in El Nino throughout the summer, autumn and winter, and we are just now seeing

01:09 the decrease of the temperature in the tropical Pacific towards a neutral condition that we

01:15 expect to prevail by the end of the spring.

01:20 And possibly also extra energy and extra radiation coming from the sun, which is particularly

01:25 active at the moment.

01:27 February was also the warmest on record, capping off a ninth straight month of historic highs.

01:33 According to Copernicus, the trend has pushed the planet into uncharted territory.

Category

Transcript

Recommended