With over 30°C recorded in some areas, the Mediterranean equals its temperature records of 2023

These high temperatures threaten fish and marine plants, promote invasive species and increase the potential intensity of precipitation in a region particularly affected by the effects of global warming.

For the second year in a row, Mediterranean Sea temperatures have reached record levels. On Sunday, August 11, the daily median sea surface temperature reached 28.67°C, close to the record of 28.71°C measured on July 24, 2023, said Justino Martinez, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM) in Barcelona and the Catalan Institute.

These high temperatures threaten fish and marine plants, promote invasive species and increase the potential intensity of precipitation in a region particularly affected by the effects of global warming. In addition, “An abnormally warm temperature of the Mediterranean Sea in autumn can make Mediterranean episodes more intense by allowing the atmosphere to store more moisture on its way to the coasts”but without causing the occurrence of these devastating rain phenomena, recalls Météo-France.

Locally, water temperatures above 30°C have been recorded since the beginning of August, notably on a buoy off Monaco, another in Corsica, and near Valencia in Spain. “Boiling sea in Campania”the Naples region, headlined the Italian daily on Tuesday The RepublicIn Nice, the water has been 3 or 4 degrees above normal since July 15, which prevents the air from cooling at night and leaves the population without respite between two often scorching days.

For two successive summers, the Mediterranean will have been warmer than during the exceptionally hot summer of 2003, when a daily median was measured at 28.25°C on August 23, a previous record that had stood for twenty years. Today, “What is remarkable is not so much reaching a maximum on a given day, but observing a long period of such high temperatures, even without breaking a record”warns Justino Martinez. “Since 2022, surface temperatures have been abnormally high over a long period, even when we take into account the context of climate change”he added.