Florida seawater could set world record for hottest

The waters off the coast of Florida recorded unprecedented high temperatures earlier this week, with water as hot as a bathtub.

Ocean temperatures around Florida on July 24. Photo: NOAA — Ocean temperatures around Florida on July 24. Photo: *NOAA*

Shallow waters off the coast of Florida reached 37.8 degrees Celsius (99.8 Fahrenheit) for several hours on July 24, potentially setting a world record for a hot tub temperature. The data was taken from a buoy floating in Manatee Bay, about 60 kilometers southwest of Miami, at a depth of 1.5 meters. The temperature peaked at 38.4 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) at 6 p.m. local time, but remained above 37.8 degrees Celsius (100.8 Fahrenheit) for about four hours, according to AFP .

Jeff Masters, a former government meteorologist, said that while there is no official world record for sea surface temperature, a 2020 paper found the previous high of 37.6 degrees Celsius in Kuwait Bay. But because the new measurements were taken close to land, the influence of land and organic matter in the water may have overshadowed the record. Unless there is photographic evidence that there is no debris, it will be difficult to confirm the 37.8 degree record is valid.

Sauna-like conditions may be enjoyable for some, but prolonged periods of extreme heat are destroying coral reef ecosystems and the species that depend on them. Just days ago, the nonprofit Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) announced that a reef in South Florida called Sombrero, which they have been restoring for more than a decade, had been destroyed.

About 25% of marine animals live around coral reefs, rivaling rainforests for biodiversity, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Globally, the Mediterranean Sea reached its highest temperature on July 24 during an exceptional heatwave. "We reached a new daily record for sea surface temperature in the Mediterranean of 28.71 degrees Celsius," said the Spanish Institute of Marine Sciences.

The previous record was August 23, 2003, when it reached 28.3 degrees Celsius. July 2023 is on track to be the hottest month on record and the hottest in thousands of years, according to NASA meteorologist Gavin Schmidt.

An Khang (According to AFP )

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