"Ocean Heat Has Shattered Records for More Than a Year. What’s Happening?"

"There have been record temperatures every day for more than a year. Scientists are investigating what’s behind the extraordinary measurements."

"The ocean has now broken temperature records every day for more than a year. And so far, 2024 has continued 2023’s trend of beating previous records by wide margins. In fact, the whole planet has been hot for months, according to many different data sets.

“There’s no ambiguity about the data,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “So really, it’s a question of attribution.”

Understanding what specific physical processes are behind these temperature records will help scientists improve their climate models and better predict temperatures in the future.

Last month, the average global sea surface temperature reached a new monthly high of 21.07 degrees Celsius, or 69.93 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a research institution funded by the European Union."

Delger Erdenesanaa reports for the New York Times April 10, 2024.