The Atlantic Ocean reached a new milestone in its history this Wednesday, July 26. Its waters, located to the north, have recorded a new heat record since the beginning of the 1980s (date of the beginning of the records) according to the first data communicated this Friday, July 28 by the United States Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation (NOAA). .
“According to our analysis, the record average surface water temperature in the North Atlantic is 24.9°C, and was observed on July 26,” Centers scientist Xungang Yin told AFP. National Environmental Information Center (NCEI) from NOAA.
This record is particularly striking because it comes early in the year, with the North Atlantic typically reaching its peak heat in early September. The previous record was set last year, in early September 2022, with a temperature of 24.89 degrees Celsius, very slightly lower than this week, Xungang Yin said.
The surface temperature of the North Atlantic “must continue to increase during the month of August”, he warned, and it is therefore expected that the record will be broken again. The temperature of 24.9°C is “more than one degree warmer” than normal, a 30-year average (between 1982 and 2011), he said.
Since March, which is the month in which the North Atlantic begins to warm up after winter, the temperature curve has been moving well above that of previous years, with a gap having widened further in recent weeks. The North Atlantic has thus become an emblematic observation point for the overheating of the planet’s oceans under the effect of global warming caused by greenhouse gases.
