metaphor

Global sea surface temperature is once again approaching 2024 records, Arctic ice marks its historic winter minimum and the average temperature is 1.43 degrees above pre-industrial levels. What’s more, the Earth’s energy imbalance has reached its highest level in 65 years. And all of this without El Niño being active. So I have to correct myself: what is happening is not that the sea is smoking. That’s a huge understatement. What happens is that the oceans have gone up a notch and we are completely caught out of the game. What is happening? According to Copernicus dataIn March, the global average temperature was 13.94 degrees. That is 0.53 above the 1991-2020 average and 1.48 above the pre-industrial temperature. It’s not the warmest March on record, but it’s close. In contrast, February 2026 was one of the three coldest in the last 14 years. And it’s curious because, anyway, we are in ENSO-Neutral conditions. The 2024 record was reached with El Niño pumping heat from the Pacific; Now we are in the most absolute normality. That does have experts from half the world worried. And the sea? In the sea things are more complicated because the surface temperature is very close to lrecord ace of 2024. Furthermore, it is not a question of a specific rebound: it is the result of a sustained rise throughout the entire month of March. There are specific areas (subtropical and northeastern North Atlantic, North and South Pacific) that are already at record values; The big question is what will happen at the end of the year and, above all, at the beginning of the year when El Niño is at its highest peak of intensity. Well, but this doesn’t affect us much, right? It depends on what we mean by ‘affect’, of course. What there is no doubt is that, despite the fact that temperatures are rising around the world, the Mediterranean has become the great laboratory for all detected and undetected climate risks. After all, Mare Nostrum heats up to 20% faster than the global average. And that has clear and direct consequences for water: from the mass extinction of vertebrates to the decline of grasslands to an enormous mortality of fish. Is a sea dying little by little; a sea that drags us with it: because the heat of the Mediterranean injects more water vapor and fuels extreme precipitation phenomena. The DANA of Valencia It’s a reminder of all this.. That is, the scenario is known. What remains is to see what we do to prepare for it. Images | BenBaso | Xataka In Xataka | Something strange has happened in the stratospheric polar vortex. And it is a hint of the winter that awaits Spain