Water temperature North of Key Largo Breaks 100F! (38C)

[captqrunch]

This is very curious. Here in Texas, high temps exceed 100F for days or weeks at a time, yet even small swimming pools do not touch 100F. I would guess peak temps in backyard pools would be the upper 80s.


Anecdotally, as a kid spending summers on TX's middle coast, standing in four-foot-deep water in Rockport Bay, which is cut off from the Gulf, I noticed that the temp dropped very significantly from sea surface to sea bottom. It was in fact nice and cool four feet down. Now if Manatee Bay was 101F five feet down, what the heck was the temp at the surface? (A: A lot higher than the air temp. How?) Anyone check the buoy's calibration?

[pandora]

It's the area where I sailing and kayaking. The place where the temperature was measured is in shallow water, no sailing there, I was kayaking close to it. It's not an ocean, but shallow lagoon west of Intracoastal. The combination of no wind , sun and murky water will warm up water.
This summer is definitely hot in Florida, but that one measurement is not cause for alarm.
If you look at same place in few days the temperature changed down 10-15 degrees when wind changed

[Chotu]

None of these posts change the fact that the temperature is hot down there. That water temperature is ridiculous. And it’s no wonder marine air conditioners are not working properly. I love how posts are just trying to debunk the temperature by saying that it’s in a small lagoon. Well, look at the rest of the temperatures around it. Out in the open water. That is some hot water. Absolutely disgusting if you had to go in it. those temperatures are the lower range of the suggested water temperature for hot tubs and Jacuzzis. Yuck.

[AKA-None]

Obviously people haven’t tried keeping salt water fish and corals alive in a controlled environment like an aquarium
Keeping a balance that allows them to survive is more difficult than you might expect

[ttex]

Originally Posted by captqrunch

This is very curious. Here in Texas, high temps exceed 100F for days or weeks at a time, yet even small swimming pools do not touch 100F. I would guess peak temps in backyard pools would be the upper 80s.


Anecdotally, as a kid spending summers on TX's middle coast, standing in four-foot-deep water in Rockport Bay, which is cut off from the Gulf, I noticed that the temp dropped very significantly from sea surface to sea bottom. It was in fact nice and cool four feet down. Now if Manatee Bay was 101F five feet down, what the heck was the temp at the surface? (A: A lot higher than the air temp. How?) Anyone check the buoy's calibration?

The pools without shade are sitting at 91 degrees right now with average temp of 100 in Houston.

[GordMay]

Coral Reef Watch is a program run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that uses satellites and computer models to monitor heat risk to reefs.

Since it first launched in 2009, Coral Reef Watch has used two alert categories for monitoring heat risk to coral reefs — Level 1, which means reefs are at risk of coral bleaching, and Level 2, which means indicates the risk of "mortality of heat-sensitive corals."

But in December 2023 — on the heels of a massive summer marine heatwave — the group added three more alert levels, which it unveiled publicly this month. [1]

Level 3 indicates a risk of multi-species mortality for corals,
Level 4 means more than half the corals in a reef could die, (> 50% of corals)
Level 5 means risk of near-complete mortality. (> 80% of corals)

Before 2023, there were only three instances, of heating at this level [5], described in scientific literature.
That's what happened to several reefs, during the summer heatwaves of 2023, the effects of which were documented in a NOAA-University of Queensland study published in December. [2]
The Sombrero Reef off the Florida Keys experienced 100-per-cent coral mortality in July 2023, according to the Florida-based Coral Restoration Foundation. [3]
Increased heat is just one, of several predictors, of coral bleaching. [4]

[1] “CoralReefWatch has introduced new Bleaching Alert Levels (3-5) in response to 2023's unprecedented #MarineHeatwaves...” ➥ https://twitter.com/NOAACoral/status...ching-alert%2F

[1a] “*UPDATE” ➥ https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/prod...baa-max-7d.php

[2] “NOAA, University of Queensland report: Marine heatwaves severely impacting corals”
➥ https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/no...pacting-corals

[3] “HISTORIC HEATWAVE TRIGGERING CORAL DIE-OFF IN FLORIDA”
➥ https://www.coralrestoration.org/pos...off-in-florida

[4] “Temperature patterns and mechanisms influencing coral bleaching during the 2016 El Niño” ~ by Tim R. McClanahan et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s415...rer=www.cbc.ca

Coral Reef Watch's Feb 1, 2024, map contains several spots labelled alert Level 5, which means ocean temperatures pose a potentially catastrophic risk to coral reefs.