EU climate monitor says sea temperatures could reach record high in May

The European Union's climate monitor on Friday said ocean temperatures could reach a record high in May as conditions shift toward a potentially powerful El Niño weather pattern.

Copernicus Climate Change Service said the latest data showed that, at 21 degrees Celsius, global sea surface temperatures in April ranked as the second highest on record.

It said extremely warm conditions were also observed across a broad area stretching from the central equatorial Pacific to the west coasts of the United States and Mexico.

This is the region where “severe” marine heatwave conditions develop.

Sea surface temperatures are one of the clearest indicators of how much excess heat the planet is absorbing due to human-caused climate change.

Hotter oceans can intensify storms, damage marine ecosystems, and disrupt weather patterns around the world.

In addition, April land surface temperatures were the third-warmest on record which the service said shows that global temperatures remain persistently high.

The last major El Niño event saw a string of heat records, and scientists fear warming seas could signal the arrival of a potentially devastating “super El Niño” later this year.

Last month, the World Meteorological Organisation said the phenomenon could develop as soon as May to July.

El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon triggered by abnormally high sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

It generally causes global temperatures to rise and can cause extreme weather, including droughts in some regions and floods in others.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts suggested that by the northern hemisphere autumn, ocean temperatures in the central Pacific could rise by up to 3 degrees Celsius above normal.

If this scenario materialises, it will be one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded and raises fears that 2027 could become the hottest year ever recorded.