LONDON: Sea surface water temperatures in the Channel between Britain and France have reached “extreme” levels, the UK weather service told AFP on Wednesday, after England experienced the hottest June on record.
A spokesperson for the Met Office said surface temperatures “reached extreme levels in a pocket north of Brittany” in northwestern France on Tuesday.
The temperature is classed as extreme if it is clocked at 5C above a baseline recorded from 1982 to 2011, according to the Met Office.
Areas of seawater 2-3C above the baseline were also found in the Channel and the North Sea, the Met Office said, citing its Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Ice Analysis (OSTIA) system data.
The extreme marine heatwave “will likely expand a bit to other areas in the western Channel from now to Saturday”, the weather service spokesperson added.
Scientists warn that extreme weather events such as heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of human-induced climate change.
Greenpeace UK´s senior oceans campaigner Chris Thorne warned on Wednesday that “our ocean is boiling in the face of fossil-fuelled climate chaos”, with marine habitats “hammered by oppressive heat”.
