The sea surface temperature reaches its historical maximum

BarcelonaThis July, ocean surface temperatures have surpassed 20.96 °C, the highest value since records began for this month. This is the conclusion of the Copernicus climate change service, managed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Values were particularly high along much of the Atlantic coast and in the Western Mediterranean, and have been partly associated with the increase in marine heatwaves. marine heatwaves.

Thus, the new figure has surpassed the previous record for the month of July, which was broken in 2023 with a temperature of 20.89°C. Far from this trend slowing down, Copernicus predicts that the current conditions of the El Niño phenomenon will further intensify the values in the coming months.

Generalized increase

The Copernicus service has also highlighted the extreme temperatures we are experiencing in recent months. Specifically, scientists have reported that the months of June and July have been the hottest in history in Western Europe, with continuous heatwaves since May that have taken a toll on the territory.

Some of the observed damages include, for example, widespread drought and lack of soil moisture in places like France, Spain, and some areas of Germany and the United Kingdom. These records have been so significant that the temperature increase is already noticeable in the flow of rivers such as the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube, which are well below average.

All of this has been accompanied by a global air temperature that this July has reached 16.90°C, well above the average for July in the period between 1991 and 2020.

Samantha Burgess, strategic climate manager at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, in charge of Copernicus, warns that the continued increase in temperatures is increasingly worrying. "As the soil dries out, it loses its ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build up more easily," she notes.

For her part, Laurence Rouil, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMPS), also attributes the high temperatures to global warming, and warns that this frequency of high temperatures and constant heatwaves favors large-scale forest fires, both in southern Europe, where they are more common, and in the north. "Larger fires produce more smoke and expel it higher into the atmosphere, meaning it can travel further and affect air quality not only locally, but across the entire region," Rouil concludes.