This is devastating.
Hot Tub Clime Machine
As extreme heat waves are boiling vast swathes of the country, the oceans aren’t faring much better.
The waters off the coast of Florida are being hit particularly hard, with one sensor buoy in Manatee Bay, 40 miles south of Miami, registering a stunning 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit — which, as NBC reports, is around the average temperature of a hot tub.
While it’s unclear if the temperature establishes a new all-time record, it’s entirely likely, as The Washington Post points out.
All told, it’s a worrying new reality that the world is facing severe new weather patterns, heightened by climate change and turning summer into hell for both humans and marine life.
Coral Calamity
Weather patterns have also quieted trade winds, which usually provide the area with a cooling sea breeze. Air temperatures in the upper 90s and strong sunlight hitting shallow water are also contributing factors, according to NBC.
Even overnight, temperatures aren’t dropping below 80 Fahrenheit, keeping ocean temperatures sky high.
And it’s not just off the coast of Florida. It’s a global phenomenon, with the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic Ocean also experiencing off-the-charts surface temperatures.
Nonprofits are worried that the hot tub-like temperatures off the coast of Florida could already be damaging coral reefs. The Key Largo-based Coral Restoration Foundation warned of a “severe and urgent crisis” in a statement last week, with an historic heatwave threatening to trigger a “coral die-off.”
“What we found was unimaginable — 100 percent coral mortality,” Phanor Montoya-Maya, the organization’s restoration program manager, said in the statement.
More on ocean temps: Scientists Horrified as Sea Surface Temperatures Spike
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