South Florida sea surface temperature recorded at over 100°F

The Manatee Bay buoy in the Florida Keys recorded a sea surface temperature of 101.1 degrees at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 24.

It was already bad when the sea surface temperature was well over 90 degrees Fahrenheit last week, but...over 100?

This might be record-breaking. In the worst sense possible.

(this is a repost of my own toot, with additional elaboration and minus hashtags)

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13 comments

This kills the sea life.
Of all the life altering events that climate change will bring upon us I never stopped to think of the beaches. Will someone please think of the beaches?!

Seriously though, this sucks. Living in a world where it gets so hot you can’t even jump in the water to cool off is going to be rough.
- For what it's worth, according to Google Maps, that's probably not much of a beach spot; forests (presumably mangrove forests) seem to line much of the land on the edge of Manatee Bay.
Thats ~37C°
- More like ~38°C. 101.1°F is 38.4°C
- I think 37°C is 98.6°F, i.e. normal human body temperature. This is, somehow, hotter. But the sea being even near this temperature is...a problem.
Here is another article I found to have a good discussion of this story:

101°F in the Ocean Off Florida: Was It a World Record? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/climate/florida-100-degree-water.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
This the temp of the water - absolutely insane. At what point does the life die off? Is this common in this area?
- I think this area is relatively shallow so it can get hotter than the bulk of the seawater in deeper parts, but these are still crazy high temperatures...
  
  That makes sense. Still, it's hard to imagine a swimming pool in Arizona getting this hot!

13 comments