[Update: I'm posting a longer version of the AP story below.]
It’s not news to CP readers (see here), but the AP’s Seth Borenstein delivers the big news to the rest of the nation with his short piece, “In hot water: World’s ocean temps warmest recorded.”
And we need all the warnings we can get given that humans are not like slowly boiling frogs, we are like slowly boiling brainless frogs.
Here’s an extended excerpt of the full story:
July was the hottest the world’s oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping.
The average water temperature worldwide was 17 C, 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 weather pattern.
Meteorologists said there’s a combination of forces at work: A natural El Nino system 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 32. 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 heat is most noticeable near the Arctic, where water temperatures are as much as 12 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,” Prof. 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 centre.
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, co-ordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coral reef watch. Long-term excessive heat bleaches colourful coral reefs white and sometimes kills them.
Bleaching has started to crop up in the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands – much earlier than usual. Typically, bleaching occurs after weeks or months of prolonged high water temperatures. That usually means September or October in the Caribbean, said Mr. 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,” Prof. 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.
Time to jump!
h/t rustneversleeps!
Meteorologists said there’s a combination of forces at work: A natural El Nino system 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 32. 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 heat is most noticeable near the Arctic, where water temperatures are as much as 12 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,” Prof. 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 centre.
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, co-ordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s coral reef watch. Long-term excessive heat bleaches colourful coral reefs white and sometimes kills them.
Bleaching has started to crop up in the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands – much earlier than usual. Typically, bleaching occurs after weeks or months of prolonged high water temperatures. That usually means September or October in the Caribbean, said Mr. 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,” Prof. 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.
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Time to stop buying from ExxonMobil and to start planning for an excellent electric car.
Time also to start speaking out more.
Time to shine a very bright light on efforts to confuse and deceive.
And time to ask The New York Times and other MSM, what’s up?? Are they going to do their jobs, or not?
A bit later, I’d like to contrast two of Rex Tillerson’s statements. If you are interested, please check back.
Be Well,
Jeff
There is an expanded version of Borenstein’s AP story is here: http://bit.ly/gN8GX
As luck would have it, Hurricane Bill is heading toward Nova Scotia as we speak, expected to hit landfall on Sunday. It will be the fourth hurricane here in a dozen years, compared to just two in the 38 before that.
I keep telling my sister to sell her oceanfront property now, but her husband believes were just in a natural cycle of warming. In the meantime, Hurricane Juan took down every tree on her property (and more than 100,000 trees in the city where I live) in 2003, and Tropical Storm Noel took away three feet of shoreline in 2006.
We’ll see what Bill is packing.
While I have every confidence in the reported record average global ocean temp, that 88 deg off MD was attacked by a skeptic/denier who says he knows that area well and the buoys there are reporting 70s. Is there solid documentation of that 88? (I really hate it when deniers pick one data point, make a reasonable claim that there’s a problem with that one point, and then declare that everything else in the paper/report/story is crap.)
Not to worry about surface temperatures, the Talented Pielkes are riding to the rescue: It’s all just bias. (I think there’s probably something in there about a slightly used DC Beltway bridge for sale, too.)
GFW, ask the denier exactly where the buoy data is located so you can confirm. Note also that the 88 degree temp was claimed for a single day at a single location (Ocean City) and was probably a notable high, so there’s not a conflict between that and a claim that some buoys elsewhere in Maryland showed substantially lower temps sometime during the week.
GFW,
Water temperature is highly dependent on exactly where you measure. Shallow water near shore tends to be warmer. Ocean City is currently measuring 88° at the Inlet, which is quite shallow. Lewes, Delaware, which is not very far north, is 76:
LOCATION AIR H20 WND WND WND PRES H20 TIDAL
TMP TMP DIR SPD GST LEVEL DEPARTURE
LEWES DE 88 76 220 4 12 1011 0.77 0.15
OCEAN-CITY-INLET MD 77 88 188 10 + 1012 1.18 0.25
Sorry for the comment formatting limitations. The first 2 numbers in each row are the air temperature and water temperature, respectively.
Ocean City Inlet actually hit 89° at this time yesterday.
I was at the ocean this past weekend, and the 88 degree water readings must have been from a standing puddle. The temps were in the 70s. This is not to say that the waters are not warming, I don’t doubt they are. There have been few storms to radiate the heat out. That is why I wonder why anyone would want to stop hurricanes. they are the chief mechanism to cooling the ocean. We should move away from the waters that are at risk. However, AGW, as far as reported on this and many other websites, are unproven. Just wanted to make wure you knew where I was coming from.
Say What?? Words From ExxonMobil’s Rex Tillerson
Compare . . .
Just over two years ago, on June 21, 2007, at the conclusion of his speech to the Royal Institute for International Affairs, ExxonMobil’s Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson said:
“The British philosopher and social activist Bertrand Russell once said, ‘We must care about the world of our children and grandchildren, a world we may never see.’”
Tillerson’s speech, titled “meeting growing energy demand and addressing climate risks”, can be read here, on ExxonMobil’s own website:
(When you read it, keep in mind that Tillerson gave this speech over two years ago.)
http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/news_speeches_20070621_RWT.aspx
BUT, about a year AFTER that speech, Tillerson told The New York Times something that would seem to be quite inconsistent with that sentiment—if one takes science seriously, at least.
In July of 2008, in the context of a discussion about global warming and energy, when asked by The Times, “Where do you see your company in 20 years? Will oil and gas still be your dominant business?”, Mr. Tillerson responded:
“Yes. In 2030, oil and gas will represent 60 percent of the world’s energy needs. My view is I am going to keep doing what we do better than anyone else in the world—finding, developing and delivering oil and gas to the world. …”
You can see the entire article, written by The New York Times’ Jad Mouawad and in the July 19, 2008 paper, on the Times’ website here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19interview.html?scp=2&sq=tillerson%2C+chief&st=nyt
I also found it amusing to read this phrase in Tillerson’s 2007 speech: “… the devil is very much in the details.”
He’s right on that one!
I’ve sent a packet including an examination of ExxonMobil to numerous members of the media and to relevant climate organizations. I hope the media can provide an accurate full picture of ExxonMobil to the public. I hope the media will provide the public with the straight story. And I hope the media can push ExxonMobil for clear answers. It’s their job to do so.
Be Well,
Jeff
Thanks for that, Steve. While you were posting that I was googling and found the National Data Buoy Center, which has a nice clickable map for individual buoy data globally. The first one in the Maryland area I clicked on was MNPV2 (although unless I got very lucky it’s probably not the Ocean City buoy), which read 88.5 F as of 22:12 UTC today.
So, GFW, that denialist was making things up. Imagine that.
Yes, the ocean temps can never be higher than the atmospheric temps, because there is no such thing as an ocean current. Hurricanes are an impossiblity, too …
Good catch, SteveB. The Ocean City station is:
Station OCIM2 – 8570283 – Ocean City Inlet, MD
According to the map, it’s on the bay side, which would tend to be warmer. There’s a 24-hour history at 6-minute intervals. The water temperature peaked around 7 pm today at 91.6°.
I think the frog-in-hot-water phenomenon applies quite generally to human consciousness about our place in nature, and is +/- = to the “shifting baselines” issue raised by fisheries biologists a few years ago. Our society’s so far removed from an intimate contact with nature, so dependent on an unsustainable system that separates us from our historical dependence on climate and ecosystems, that we can’t perceive that there is great danger lurking. Not just lurking, but beginning to manifest.
Can anyone point me to the methodology by which the global average ocean temperature is calculated? Buoys? Ships? Both? Surface only or average of top x meters? Sampling methods for accurate weighting across the globe?
Thanks!
GFW, I believe the National Data Buoy Center (part of NOAA) would be a good start. Scroll down to the “Program Info” item in the menu. The FAQ is also useful.
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
Wikipedia has a good article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_surface_temperature
See also:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/anomalies/anomalies.html
Thanks – the satellite contour maps are really good for skin temp and that’s all I really need. I just wish I knew how the number in the article was derived. But great links, thanks again!