Florida is dealing with record-breaking temperatures not just on land but in the surrounding waters, where a marine heat wave is posing a major threat to corals and other marine life. Water temperatures around Florida are in the mid-90s Fahrenheit, around 5 degrees higher than normal, and the heat wave is expected to continue, putting corals under stress for an extended period of time. The temperatures are "occurring when the water would already be rather warm, bringing it up to bona fide bathtub conditions that we rarely see," hurricane expert Brian McNoldy at the University of Miami tells the Washington Post.
McNoldy warns that the warm waters could make hurricanes stronger, since they would allow a storm to "maintain a high intensity right up to landfall or rapidly intensify as it approaches landfall." The ocean temperatures are also making it harder for Floridians to cool down—and they're raising humidity on land, making the heat wave even tougher to cope with. Mark Eakin at the International Coral Society says "we could be looking at nasty bleaching" from heat accumulating relatively early in the season, the AP reports. Corals usually face the most heat stress in August and September.
"We're entering uncharted territories," says Derek Manzello, the coordinator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch program, per the New York Times. He says it can be "very depressing" to witness what's happening to the world's coral reefs as the planet heats up. Manzello says that while no bleaching has been seen in Florida so far this year, it's already happening off the coast of countries including Belize and Mexico. NOAA scientist Dillon Amaya estimates that around 40% of the planet is experiencing a marine heat wave. "Florida is one patch in a terrible quilt right now," Amaya says. (More ocean temperature stories.)
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