In Hot Water: World's Ocean Temps Warmest Recorded

Source: Associated Press

(08-20) 11:00 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The world's oceans this summer are the warmest on record.

The National Climatic Data Center, the government agency that keeps weather records, says the average global ocean temperature in July was 62.6 degrees. That's the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880. The previous record was set in 1998.

Meteorologists blame a combination of a natural El Nino weather pattern on top of worsening manmade global warming. The warmer water could add to the melting of sea ice and possibly strengthen some hurricanes.

The result has meant lots of swimming at beaches in Maine with pleasant 72-degree water. Ocean temperatures reached 88 degrees as far north as Ocean City, Md., this week.

The Gulf of Mexico, where warm water fuels hurricanes, has temperatures dancing around 90. Most of the water in the Northern Hemisphere has been considerably warmer than normal. The Mediterranean is about three degrees warmer than normal. Higher temperatures rule in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It's most noticeable near the Arctic, where water temperatures are as much as 10 degrees above average.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/20/national/a101659D19.DTL#ixzz0OkZ6WJy0

:sarcasm:

I believe in global warming, but I wonder if it's just bad timing for us. I know man has fucked this planet up, but it just might be something that would have happened no matter what we did. Extinction happened to the Dinosaurs it can happen to us.

I hope there is reincarnation, as I would like to come back in another 70 million years and see what we get replaced by.

I would like to come back as an Eagle in the middle of the Grand Canyon without ever seeing man.

There's a sight-seeing helicopter on your tail!!

they couldn't adapt to changing conditions but they didn't actively work to destroy their habitat either.

We don't have either excuse, we are capable of adapting and we're definitely contributing to the Earth's natural cycles speeding up and causing more extremes in climate variations.

Maybe that was our downfall. And we had 40 years to see this coming. Yet we still did nothing. And we still have non believers of global warming.

n/t

We,re burning dead dinosaurs and pumping the remains in to the atmosphere; a cosmic global Jurassic Park.

among other consequences

Asshole

The few humans who survive will be forced to live in areas that are now considered largely uninhabitable. Antarctica will be the new tropics. Of course, sea levels will rise several meters, and what's left of the currently inhabited areas will largely be under water.

Santorum is Latin for asshole, isn't it?

On second thought maybe instead of surfing planks they should start looking into plywood sheets and high ground. :scared:

I wonder what the Mt. Washington weather will be like if Bill comes close.:wow:

It might be a good time to hike the Appalachian trail.

The only good I can see coming out of this is enough people may finally wake up and start to go after the corporations standing in the way of doing anything about climate change. If we can't get a health care public option maybe we can force a "compromise" to just let people buy in to medicare. :evilgrin: While the torches and pitchforks are still out we can then look to the coal and oil companies in a month or so. :grr:

when the ice is all melted

We are so screwed

Source: Associated Press

In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record


WASHINGTON – Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean Sunday — in Maine. The water temperature was 72 degrees — more like Ocean City, Md., this time of year. And Ocean City's water temp hit 88 degrees this week, toasty even by Miami Beach standards.

Kramer, 26, who lives in the seaside town of Scarborough, said it was the first time he's ever swam so long in Maine's coastal waters. "Usually, you're in five minutes and you're out," he said.

It's not just the ocean off the Northeast coast that is super-warm this summer. July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of record-keeping.

The average water temperature worldwide was 62.6 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. That was 1.1 degree higher than the 20th century average, and beat the previous high set in 1998 by a couple hundredths of a degree. The coolest recorded ocean temperature was 59.3 degrees in December 1909.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090820/ap_on_sc/us_sci_warm_oceans

we better get down to business.

get the health reform bill that covers everybody passed PDQ so we can work on stopping climate change.

I know its like stopping a speeding bullet but we have to try.

And it should remain "Global Warming" btw because it makes clear this is about

HEAT -- not about any incidental or coincidental or normal "climate change."

Maine's coastline has always been pretty cold.

that the ocean is warming up. It was the coldest July ever recorded for the state of Connecticut. At least the fish are having a summer.

system. Welcome to DU!

In oceans that are already straining from a lack of dissolved gases in them warming thme up reduces a liquid's ability to store dissolved oxygen and Co2 needed to sustain oceanic life.

So basically these gasses are passed into the atmosphere and dead spots increase. Most of the population relies on the oceans either directly or indirectly so warming oceans could be a very very bad thing.

So much of the CO2 we've released into the atmosphere is being absorbed by the oceans and converted to carbonic acid that some species of sealife may not be able to grow shells anymore. That includes zooplankton, the foundation for the oceanic food chain.

I look forward to more of your brilliant nuggets of wisdom. :hi: Welcome to DU!

where the hell was the 72-degree water?