The water temperature at the tip of Florida exceeded 100 degrees for two days in a row, making beaches hot tub temperature.
National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto told The Associated Press that Manatee Bay hit 101.1 degrees Monday night, after a reading of 100.2 degrees Sunday night. This is a “potential record," he said.
The hot water has caused coral bleaching and deaths among reefs, such as Cheeca Rocks off the coast of Islamorada. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher Andrew Ibarra said that an entire reef was found bleached out at Cheeca Rocks, as well as dead coral.
Climate Concerns & Extreme Weather
The water temperature rise has occurred amidst an ongoing heat wave impacting much of the United States. In southern Florida, Tuesday became the 22nd consecutive day that Miami-Dade County was under a heat advisory. Its previous record was three days.
The heat waves sweeping the United States, Mexico, and Europe would have been “virtually impossible" without climate change, according to a new report from the World Weather Attribution initiative. It found that the regions would have been “significantly cooler” with lowered greenhouse gas emissions.
Heat waves like those at the beginning of the month now have a 1-in-15 chance of happening any given year in North America. Greenhouse gas emissions also made the heat waves hotter than they would have been: 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) in North America, according to the report.
Within the next five years, global temperatures are predicted to rise beyond an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which said in May that there is now a 66 percent chance of reaching the average by 2027.
The Paris Climate Accords of 2015 set to limit greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5C. While the goal is still attainable, data in the WMO report and from recent increasing temperatures reflect a failure among world leaders to limit fossil fuel usage.
