High temperatures: The sea temperature off Florida is 36.1 degrees

Florida coastal cities struggle with the effects of a global warming oceans. The water temperature is over 30 degrees Celsius in many places. A NOAA floater measured 36.1 degrees Monday night (local time) near Johnson Key. Another float had recorded a temperature of around 35 degrees near Vaca Key the day before.

Meteorologist Andrew Orison of NOAA National Weather Service said sea temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and southwest Atlantic are two to three degrees warmer than normal. “It’s unbelievable,” Orison said. “The water is so warm you can’t cool it down.” Experts warn that temperatures will rise to 43 degrees on the ground due to humidity by the end of the week.

Expect coral bleaching

Unusual water temperatures endanger coral reefs off the coast. It may be “due to bad bleaching,” scientist Liv Williamson of the University of Miami’s Coral Reef Futures Lab told the Associated Press. There is a 90 percent chance of major bleaching occurring on many coral reefs along Pacific islands from the equator to Florida. “It’s only in July that the heat will continue to build and corals will have to acclimate to dangerously hot conditions for much longer than normal,” Williamson said. “We have already received reports of bleaching from Belize, which is very concerning this early summer.”

Global sea surface temperatures have been at record levels since April. According to scientists, climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon are among the causes of the current heat.

(DPA/for)View comments