As seas get hotter, South Florida gets slammed by an ocean heat wave

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/ [login to see] /as-seas-get-hotter-south-florida-gets-slammed-by-an-ocean-heat-wave
An ocean heat wave in waters around Florida has scientists worried about cascading disasters, from fueling hurricanes and coral bleaching to exacerbating record heat on land.

Ocean temperatures have soared five degrees above normal since early July. This warming has been ignited by an El Nino weather pattern that's collided with human-caused climate change.

"It's bonkers. I don't know how else to put it," said Ben Kirtman, an atmospheric scientist with the University of Miami Rosenstiel School. "Normally when you break records, you break records by a tenth of a degree, maybe a quarter of a degree....Here, we're breaking it by five degrees."

If scientists were to model the chances for such a spike in temperature, he said, it would amount to one in 250,000 years.

"It's out of bounds from what we've seen," Kirtman said.