Oceans: record heat in April, cause unknown
The average temperature at the surface of the oceans broke a record on April 1, reaching 21.1°C, against 21°C for the previous record, in 2016. The information does not interest not only those who scrutinize these records: it interests above all those who speculate on the frequency and intensity of future hurricanes.
It is that a hurricane is fed by the heat of the waters above which it revolves. The hotter this water, the more energy it gains. That's why for as long as we've been talking about global warming, we've speculated that warming could result in either more hurricanes or more hurricanes. powerful.
To date, we still do not have the answer, just as we do not know if there is a threshold, in degrees Celsius, beyond which the inhabitants of coastal regions will suffer the consequences. But records like those of April 1, or an increase in the number of times a year when the average exceeds 20 degrees, are observed with the greatest attention by meteorologists, climatologists and oceanographers.
Especially since it's not just a one-day record we're talking about this time. It was for 5 days, from April 1 to 5, that the average temperature (excluding the polar regions) was maintained, to within a few hundredths of a degree, around 21.1°C, according to satellite data compiled by the Oceans and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) and the University of Maine.
And it stayed around 21.0°C from April 6 to 26, which is a few tenths of a degree higher than the average for all previous years, since 1981 that these satellite data are collected. “ The current trajectory shows that [the temperature] exceeds the norms, crushing the previous records ”,comments in the British newspaper The Guardianclimatologist Matthew England.
It is the planet may be heading for an El Niño event this fall — a natural phenomenon that traditionally adds to widespread warming. These figures would therefore be a foretaste, although nothing can explain why the temperature is so high, so early in the year.
What is certain is that the oceans have accumulated more heat in the last 15 years than in the previous five decades, but this is a long-term trend, which also does not explain these April 2023 figures.  ;
Link to the original article
https://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/actualite/2023/04/27/oceans-records-chaleur- april-cause-unknown
