Wednesday June 28, 2023
NOAA Research —
As scientists around the world sound the alarm about record sea surface temperatures, a new experimental NOAA forecast system predicts that half of the global ocean may experience marine heatwave conditions by the end of summer.
The surface temperatures of about 40% of the global ocean are already high enough to meet the criteria for a marine heatwave — a period of persistent anomalously warm ocean temperatures — which can have significant impacts on marine life as well as coastal communities and economies. The new forecast by the Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) projects that it will increase to 50% by September, and it could stay that way through the end of the year.
“No doubt, we’re in hot water,” said Dillon Amaya, a PSL research scientist and a co-lead of NOAA’s June 2023 marine heatwave experimental outlook. “In our 32-year record, we have never seen such widespread marine heatwave conditions.”