By Helen Ecker··Modified:
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The surface waters of the Mediterranean are the warmest ever recorded. The average sea temperature the day before yesterday was 28.47 degrees. This means that the record set last July has already been broken again. The European climate organization Copernicus confirmed this to RTL News.
Countries around the Mediterranean have been extremely hot for much of this summer. In many places on land, temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees more than once. At sea, surface temperatures have exceeded 28 degrees since August 6, making it the longest period above that level since measurements began.
Sea temperatures are expected to drop slightly over the next 10 days. But the temperature will remain above 28 degrees, which, according to Copernicus, has never happened before in August, or any other month, except for a few days in July 2023.
Weather in emergencies
Maurice Middendorp of Buienradar warns of the meteorological effects that the warm Mediterranean can have. He recalls the heavy rains that fell on Ibiza and Mallorca, where there were severe thunderstorms this week. In a short time, heavy rain fell, planes were grounded and severe weather caused extensive damage.
“Bands of rain often occur over the Mediterranean. If the sea water is very warm, the air above it may also contain more moisture. Such a band of heavy rain can in some cases develop into what is called a ‘medicine’.”
It's a small, ferocious hurricane in the Mediterranean, with high winds and heavy rains too. “The consequences could be more severe than what we saw over Mallorca.”
See how a severe storm hit Ibiza here:
But it is not yet possible to say whether we will also see it in the Mediterranean this season. Middendorp believes that there will still be a greater chance of extreme weather in the near future. “We see this more often at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, because less warm air has a chance to flow over the Mediterranean.”
In addition, seawater temperatures are at their highest at that time. “This combination results in heavy rainfall. The warmer the seawater, the more rain a shower or medication set can leave behind.”
annoying
“It’s worrying, but not unexpected,” says oceanographer Eric van Sebille of Utrecht University. “The climate is simply warming up, and so is the water in the sea.”
Warming is a concern for many animal species and organisms in the Mediterranean. According to him, the consequences here too could be greater than anywhere else in the ocean. He says this is because this is a specific area.
“In the ocean, species can move with temperature to some extent. That is, we see all kinds of animals and organisms moving slowly towards the poles, because the water is colder there. This is not only true for fish, but also for algae and seaweed, but this is not possible in the Mediterranean, and then you end up on the coast in France or Italy.
ocean temperature rise
For more than a year, climate scientists have been concerned about the high temperatures being measured in the water. The very warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean in particular have attracted and continue to attract attention. It is still unclear what is causing this.
Therefore, far fewer measurements are made in the seas and oceans than on land. There have been many measuring stations on land for more than a century to measure all kinds of aspects of meteorology. At sea they are much fewer and also shorter. This makes it difficult to understand the processes that play a role in its warming.
“We measure the sea temperature mainly using satellites. We have been doing this since 1982,” says Van Sebille. “This data is combined with measurements from floating buoys and temperature measurements from ships. All of this data is put together to determine the average temperature in the Mediterranean.”
