From extraordinarily high temperatures to unprecedented forest fires, the summer of 2023 is truly remarkable. And we’re only in August. Last month broke records as the hottest on record. Firefighters battled hundreds of wildfires in Canada, tourists endured extreme heat in Europe, and residents of Phoenix, Arizona faced scorching temperatures exceeding 43 degrees Celsius day after day. But it’s not just the extreme weather on land that’s alarming. Massive portions of our oceans are experiencing unprecedented heat, causing concern among scientists studying coral reefs, oceanography, and atmospheric science worldwide.
Oceans have been absorbing 90% of the excess heat generated by the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, including those resulting from human use of fossil fuels to power the global economy. This absorbed heat eventually makes its way into the atmosphere, intensifying the cycle of planetary heating and leading to more extreme weather events, like severe storms, intense fires, and blistering heatwaves.
“The kind of heat transfer we’re seeing leads to stronger rain events and storms,” explains Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Not necessarily more hurricanes or storms, but often more powerful storms and heavier rain events.”
In other words, the oceans have been playing a significant role in mitigating the escalating crisis of global heating. However, there’s a limit to how much heat they can absorb. “The ocean and the atmosphere are closely intertwined,” says John Clague, a professor emeritus of earth sciences at Simon Fraser University. “If the ocean is warming, the atmosphere will also warm.”
The extreme maritime heatwaves observed this year have been off the charts. For example, sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have been several degrees hotter than the historical average. The water temperature off the coast of South Florida even reached a scorching 38 degrees Celsius, making it feel like “taking a bath.”
“These extremes are far beyond what any forecast predicted,” says Clague, echoing the concerns of experts worldwide about the state of our oceans. The North Atlantic, in particular, has seen temperatures six to seven degrees Celsius above normal, which is unprecedented. “We’ve never seen ocean temperatures like this before,” says Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts.
Additionally, there’s a significant warm water anomaly in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of North America, raising more concerns. “All these pockets of hot water in the global oceans contribute to an overall warmer atmosphere,” explains Francis.
These alarming trends led UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to state that “climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. We have moved from the era of global warming to the era of global boiling.”
Adding to the worries about excessive global heat is the El Niño phenomenon. El Niño occurs when the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador becomes warmer. This natural weather anomaly leads to warmer and wetter conditions in the winter months, particularly along the west coast of North America. This year’s El Niño pattern has been building, and its impacts are expected to be strongest in late fall and winter, potentially breaking more records.
Climate scientists are especially concerned about this year’s El Niño because our planet is already experiencing heightened temperatures due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the past two centuries, especially since the mid-20th century. When combined with El Niño-related warming, which acts as a planetary heater, next year could witness even more weather records being shattered.
“In an El Niño phase, the heat stored in the ocean is released into the atmosphere,” says Francis. “This pushes an already concerning heat situation to its limits.”
The summer of 2023 has painted a worrying picture of our planet’s future. It’s a call for urgent action to address the climate crisis we’re facing.
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