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

[Chotu]

No wonder people have been complaining about water cooled air conditioning compressors not working lately on the forum.

I’m sure water this warm pushes the design parameters.

To put this in perspective, hot tub/jacuzzi manufacturers recommend a water temperature between 98F and 104F.

Apparently a great deal of the coral is already dead/bleached around the keys this year.

These temperature exceeds the hottest water temperature ever recorded on Earth. Which were from Kuwait Bay originally at 99.7F (37.6C)

[GordMay]

Florida ocean temperature topped 100F, setting potential record

The readings were taken from a single buoy in Manatee Bay, about 38 miles (60 kilometers) southwest of Miami, at a depth of five feet (1.5 meters).

A peak temperature of 101.1F was recorded at 6:00 pm, but it remained above 100F for about four hours, official data showed.

We attained a new record... in the daily median sea surface temperature of the Mediterranean: 28.71C (83.68F)," Spain's Institute of Marine Sciences said.

Coral Reef Foundation [CRF] teams visited Sombrero Reef, a restoration site we've been working at for over a decade. What we found was unimaginable—100% coral mortality," said the organization's Phanor Montoya-Maya, in a statement.

[MicHughV]

I was in Islamorada recently, and can attest to the warm water.
Did not have thermometer with me, but it was definitely "bathtub warm", almost to the point of being uncomfortably warm.

[Montanan]

Chotu:

What is needed is a sea water conditioner to cool the sea that the hull is displacing.

A hull that is 100 F, will radiate a tremendous amount of energy onto one's body and cooling the air around you will not change one's comfort level significantly.

It is similar to standing in front of radiant fireplace or lying on warm concrete.

Revising Horace Greeley guidance: "Go north young man."

Present surface temperature of massive Flathead Lake, Montana is a mild having warmed from 36 F in winter towards 59 to 65 presently depending on location.

Of keen issue is that there is minimal post winter inflow from the mountains so the lake which is ordinarily kept near full pool from Memorial Day end of May, to Labor Day, beginning of September has been dropping from its highest level of June 12th and is now about 2 feet below full pool and will continue to drop making it challenging to irrigate from the backwater sources and to utilize non-floating docks or access many shallow marinas.

Albeit last year the lake flooded to its highest level since 1964 and most docks were submerged by Memorial Day. The tremendous spring freschet flow over topping of the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ dam and falling 205 feet is amazing.

What a difference a year makes.
Welcome to the new norm.

And enjoy this coolest summer of the rest of your life.

And we can pretty much kiss off enjoying many coral reefs and all the flora and fauna associated therewith.

[Chotu]

It’s my hope that this thread doesn’t turn political. I merely posted some facts at the top. We don’t really need politics involved in this. These are just what happened in Florida near the keys. I’m not making any statement supporting any political party or political ideology. Just reporting what happened in the keys.

[Wotname]

Please keep your posts focussed on sailing, boating, cruising aspects. There are many alternative social media sites to discuss other subjects.

[GordMay]

World Record, or Not, It's Certainly Notable!


The reading, from a buoy [1], off Florida this week, was stunning: 101.1°F [38.389°C], was a [possible] world record for Sea Surface Temperatures [SSTs]. But, determining whether that reading was, in fact, a world record, is complicated*.

Experts have, previously, pointed to a reading of 99.68°F [37.6°C], recorded in the middle of Kuwait Bay, in 2020, and reported in a 2020 research paper [2], as the world record Sea Surface Temperature [SST], to date.


* Comparing the Kuwait reading, taken in the open sea, to the recent reading, in shallow, near the shore, waters, off the coast of Florida, introduces a lot of complications [water depth, presence of organic matter (seaweed),etc].

But, whether or not temperatures, off Florida, actually broke a world record, 100 degrees is an alarming reading, for seawater!

And, climate scientists said preliminary data [3], from NOAA, showed the Worldwide AVERAGE temperature, at the ocean’s surface [SST] has been at 21.1°C, since the start of April – beating the previous high of 21°C, set in 2016.

[1] Station MNBF1 - Manatee Bay, FL [Water Temperature, etc]
➥ https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_pa...?station=mnbf1

[2] “ World record extreme sea surface temperatures in the northwestern Arabian/Persian Gulf verified by in situ measurements” ~ by Y. Alosairi et al
”... The extreme SST in Kuwait Bay reached 37.6 °C [99.68°F], recorded by the offshore station KISR01 located in the middle of the Bay...”
➥ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33096400/

[3] “Daily Sea Surface Temperature” [60°S ➛ 60°N]
➥ https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/

[Lake-Effect]

Anticipated coral bleaching and death.

Counterpoint: coral does regrow... eventually. If/when the temperatures return to nominal, or the organisms evolve to survive in higher temperatures.

(It's sometimes difficult to discuss the injuries of, say, a victim of a traffic accident, without also some acknowledgment (or denial of) of the bus that hit them.)

[GordMay]

Scientists scramble to save Florida coral reefs from heat event
2:03 ➥ http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2249955395747

[GordMay]

HISTORIC HEATWAVE TRIGGERING CORAL DIE-OFF IN FLORIDA
"... On July 20th, CRF™ teams visited Sombrero Reef, a restoration site we've been working at for over a decade. What we found was unimaginable — 100% coral mortality," says Dr. Phanor Montoya-Maya, Restoration Program Manager at Coral Restoration Foundation™, "We have also lost almost all the corals in the Looe Key Nursery in the Lower Keys. Yet, despite the devastation, we remain hopeful and determined. Sites in the Upper Keys, where the water is cooler, are not yet showing such dramatic declines, which gives us time to act. We are now rescuing as many corals as we can from our nurseries and relocating key genotypes to land-based holding systems, safeguarding our broodstock – potentially, the last lifeline left many of these corals ..."
More ➥ https://www.coralrestoration.org/pos...off-in-florida


x

Dead elkhorn coral at Sombrero Reef in the Florida Keys. The white areas are bleached coral, the brownish orange patches are "tissue slough", coral tissue that has died before it has a chance to bleach © CRF™

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by GordMay

World Record, or Not, It's Certainly Notable!


The reading, from a buoy [1], off Florida this week, was stunning: 101.1°F [38.389°C], was a [possible] world record for Sea Surface Temperatures [SSTs].

It's a very curious place to put a weather buoy. Saying it's "off Florida" is a bit misleading. Manatee Bay is essentially a lagoon - a fairly small and very shallow lagoon, at the mouth of a shallow canal. It's no surprise that solar insolation and storm run-off would produce such high temperatures in Florida during the summertime.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

It's no surprise that solar insolation and storm run-off would produce such high temperatures in Florida during the summertime.

Point taken... yet the water temperature in this location has not been this high before in its recorded history. That's surprising, no?

[marcjsmith]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Point taken... yet the water temperature in this location has not been this high before in its recorded history. That's surprising, no?

It has been higher a couple times in fact.


While the news from earlier this week that a buoy near the Florida Keys recorded a water temperature of 101.1 degrees is alarming, it's not unprecedented.
It's not even the record for Manatee Bay, the observing site where the data came from, said David Zierden, state climatologist at the Florida Climate Center in Tallahassee.
The record for the Manatee Bay site is 102 degrees. It was set on Aug. 15, 2017. Going further back, Zierden said the site recorded a temperature of 100 degrees in 2010. Zierden referenced a analysis and a graphic created by Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist and storm surge expert with WPLG-TV. Lowry used the data he received from Everglades National Park South Florida Natural Resources Center (SFNRC), who maintain this particular network of stations
Melting down: Ever wonder how hot a playground slide can get during record heat? We found out
Heat history: Weather history: These are Florida's 10 hottest days ever
Something to point out: The Manatee Bay gauge is very close to land, south of Biscayne Bay, and measures the water temperature at a depth of 5 feet.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by marcjsmith

While the news from earlier this week that a buoy near the Florida Keys recorded a water temperature of 101.1 degrees is alarming, it's not unprecedented.

I was going to ask you for a link, but I was able to find it myself. It does provide context. So, thanks for the correction.

[Floridajohnb]

Manatee Bay also receives the cooling water from Turkey Point nuclear power plant. That might be helping the temperature rise.