Warmest oceans ever recorded

Sea Surface Temperature anomaly of September 2014 from NOAA's ERSST dataset. Image courtesy of Axel Timmermann.

The “Global Warming Hiatus” — a 14-year global pause in ocean surface temperature rise — may be over. “This Summer has seen the highest global mean sea surface temperatures ever recorded since their systematic measuring started. Temperatures even exceed those of the record-breaking 1998 El Niño year,” says International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) climate scientist and Oceanography professor Axel Timmermann. “From 2000–2013 the global ocean surface temperature rise paused, in spite of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. As of April 2014 ocean warming, however, has picked up speed again.” The trend has continued into Fall, and 2014 will likely go down as the warmest year on record.

Read more about it and watch the video at KITV4 (autoplays); read more about it in UH Mānoa News, Washington Post, Science Daily, New Scientist, Quartz, and Reporting Climate Science.