The unprecedented heat wave over 18 days in the western U.S. That helps raise water and air temperatures.Ī blocked pattern seen in the jet stream over North America this summer and blamed for the heat waves has been linked to climate change by climate scientist Michael Mann and others. South Florida has been suffering under a lingering high-pressure system that’s weaker with reduced trade winds, Masters said. But on top of that, there’s long-term climate change, he said. “Weather is naturally extreme, and some of the extremes we’re seeing are due to natural variability,” he said. Though an international group of scientists studying heat waves in three locations this summer say it’s possible El Niño contributed some heat, it wasn’t a major factor, they said. have been driven by El Niño,” said Michelle L’heureux, a climate scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.Įl Niño has only recently formed a weak but complex link with the atmosphere that allows it to begin having a significant influence on the world’s weather. 'I haven't seen any strong evidence that warmer temperatures so far over the U.S. Though it might be tempting for some to chalk up the heat to a typically hot summer or the building El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, neither of those things can explain the heat in South Florida or in the western U.S., scientists said this week. That includes buoys that reached 99.3 degrees and 98.4 degrees.įederal officials say more than 40% of the world's oceans are experiencing marine heat waves, a figure that could reach 50% by September. He noted, however, that 11 stations near the Manatee Key reported sea surface temperatures of more than 96 degrees Monday. Given the gauge's location near land and the Kuwait measurement in open water, Masters said, the two really shouldn't be compared. The water temperature at the Manatee Bay buoy could have been heated by floating plants and other debris, he said. Air temperature at Marathon in the Florida Keys reached 99 degrees Monday, tying the all-time record. It is possible for sunlit, shallow water surrounded by dark land and light winds to be warmer than the air temperature, Masters said. The Manatee Bay gauge is very close to land, south of Biscayne Bay, and measures the water temperature at a depth of 5 feet. Offshore stations are more representative of true ocean temperatures, he said. The station in Kuwait Bay is 4 miles offshore, at a depth of 25 to 38 feet, Alosairi told USA TODAY on Wednesday. That's according to a 2020 study by research scientist Yousef Alosairi and others at the Environmental and Life Science Research Center at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. The unofficial record sea surface temperature is 99.7 degrees in the middle of Kuwait Bay in the northwestern Persian Gulf, Masters said. The reading would need to be verified, and no one keeps official sea surface temperature records, Masters said. That depends on the surrounding circumstances, said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections. Was Monday’s 101.1 degree temperature in Manatee Bay a valid record measurement? “Calling this heat wave unprecedented is an understatement,” McNoldy said.Ĭoncern over coral reefs: '100% coral mortality' found at Florida Keys reef because of rising temperatures, restoration group says What to know about that hot sea surface temperature The heat index – what the temperature feels like – in Miami has topped 100 degrees for 43 consecutive days, 11 days longer than the previous record, Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science at the University of Miami, tweeted on Monday.

Heat has been building in South Florida for weeks as the region and much of the western United States sweltered in temperatures much warmer than normal. That's higher than an unofficial 99.7 degrees once reported in Kuwait, but meteorologists say the Florida gauge's location in shallower, darker water near land means the two measurements can't be fairly compared. Water temperature at a buoy in Manatee Bay south of Miami reached an incredible 101.1 degrees Monday evening. Water temperatures in the bays between the mainland and the Florida Keys were so warm that meteorologists say they were among the hottest ocean temperatures ever recorded on Earth. No hot tub needed in South Florida this week.

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