Why is it so hot?

A heat dome that covered southern New England finally moved on yesterday. The highs touched 100°F, and with the humidity, the heat indices were five degrees higher. I have a feeling this won’t be the last of it.

“The world’s oceans are the hottest on record for June, pushing past records set during the 2023–24 El Niño years. 

 

“Right now, the average sea surface temperature is just under 21°C across the world’s tropical and temperate oceans. Before widespread industrialisation in 1870, the temperature was about 19.6°C. 

 

“That may not sound like a big difference. But heating the world’s oceans this much requires a truly enormous amount of energy. Of all the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases from burning coal, gas and oil, more than 90% has gone into the world’s oceans. 

 

“As a result, the oceans are getting rapidly warmer. In 2025, the heat added was the equivalent of about 12 Hiroshima-scale nuclear bombs exploding every second of every day.”

A climate-denialist colleague was fond of pointing out that the planet has been warmer in the past. Which is true, but not when there were 8 billion people living on it.

“To find a climate analogue comparable to what’s happening now in the oceans, we would have to go back around 120,000 years to before the last ice age. Back then, slow shifts in Earth’s orbit led it to heat up gradually over thousands of years. Humans have accomplished a similar result in a little over a century.”

Parts of the planet are uninhabitable because of the heat. And coastal cities are becoming inundated by storm-driven flooding. Meanwhile, the official policy of the US government is that climate change is a hoax. Since the data support climate change as a reality, the Trump Administration response is to stop collecting data.

“The current US administration last year slashed funding for climate data gathering networks and has worked to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research. 

 

“This year, the administration announced it would end funding for a key ocean monitoring network before backing down.”

It’s gonna get worse.

https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-oceans-are-the-hottest-on-record-for-june-and-el-nino-is-set-to-turn-up-the-heat-even-more-286561

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