The world’s oceans just broke a disturbing record

Oceans absorb our climate sins; now, they are heating up, too.

This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Temperatures on the ocean surface have hit a record high, raising fears of another burst of extreme heat this summer.

On June 21, temperatures outside the polar regions exceeded the extraordinary highs observed at the same time in 2023 and 2024, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday.

It warned the new peak would probably bring “consequences for weather patterns, global climate and marine ecosystems,” not least because it would coincide with the earliest phases of an El Niño event they forecast to be the strongest in decades.

The world’s oceans are extremely hot. We’re about to find out what happens next.

When the previous ocean record for June was set in 2023, scientists described the trends as........

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