The pattern is concerning when including temperatures on land: July 4 was the hottest global average day on record, and it quickly lost the title on July 6 and July 7. The first week of July may have been the warmest week ever recorded, according to Omar Baddour, Chief of Climate Monitoring at WMO.
More El Niño effects can be expected in the year to come, according to NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL). Based on its experimental model for predicting ocean surface temperature, the PSL research team believes that it is likely that the El Niño pattern will intensify through the end of 2023. This could be accompanied by a marine heatwave off the Pacific Northwest and the Gulf of Alaska in 2024, similar to the one that devastated West Coast fisheries in 2014-16.
In Florida, experts are concerned that the last remaining live coral reefs in the Keys will sustain serious damage from heat this year. Sea surface temperatures in this region are at the highest for early summer since satellite sensing began, and the hottest spots have hit bathtub temperatures in the high 90s (F). Corals do poorly at temperatures above the high 80s, and extended periods of warm water can cause die-offs (bleaching).
“I have never been so worried for the future of Florida’s reefs,” veteran coral scientist Bill Precht told local station WFLA in Miami. “If greater than 90 percent of what’s left gets whacked, there will essentially be nothing left. . . . This is the scary reality. This is not science fiction.”
