Occurrence of warmest sea-surface temperatures since 1985

Each year, the world’s leading climate scientists evaluate the most critical evidence on how our planet is changing. Their assessments draw heavily on data from Earth-observing satellites – and the latest 10 New Insights in Climate Science report delivers a stark warning: the planet’s energy balance is drifting further out of alignment, oceans are warming at unprecedented rates, and the land’s capacity to absorb carbon is declining, along with other troubling trends.
Insight number two highlights that marine heatwaves are becoming more intense and prolonged. These changes are causing severe ecosystem damage, undermining coastal livelihoods, increasing extreme weather risks and weakening the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon.

The image shows data over the last 40 years, highlighting when and where the most recent maximum sea-surface temperature was recorded. Marine heatwaves have been widespread but have hit the Atlantic, Indian and West Pacific oceans particularly hard in the last few years.

Read full story: Revealed: 10 new insights in climate science