The pace of ocean warming has almost doubled since 2005. Marine heatwaves are not only devastating for life under the sea but also on land.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Ocean temperatures are rising, and the consequences are not only affecting marine life, but us too.
00:12Experts warn that marine heatwaves are driving more extreme weather events across the globe.
00:17The higher the ocean and sea temperature is, the more we are going to be affected by all these weather events, which will have significant consequences.
00:26There is a coincidence between marine heatwaves and droughts and wildfire events.
00:32So, what does a warmer ocean mean for life on land?
00:38There is a maximum alert in the state of Florida for the imminent arrival of Hurricane Milton.
00:43A new class 5 hurricane, the highest level.
00:46Already pounding Mexico beaches.
00:48It could be one of the most destructive storms ever to hit the Gulf Coast of Florida.
00:55October 7, 2024. The world watched in awe as Hurricane Milton went from a tropical storm to a Category 5 monster in about a day.
01:05Milton finally made landfall as a Category 3 storm, but it became the third most rapidly intensifying Atlantic storm on record.
01:14Scientists say one key factor is pushing storms to new extremes.
01:18Ocean heat. The Gulf of Mexico had recorded dangerously high temperatures in previous months.
01:24Hurricanes like these are common in North America.
01:27But that doesn't mean that they can't happen in Europe.
01:44It can lead to scenes like this.
01:50That was Hurricane Kirk, passing through Western Europe at the beginning of October.
01:55And then there are so-called medicanes.
01:57That's a hurricane forming over the Mediterranean Sea.
02:01They happen one to three times per year at most, and often don't touch land.
02:05But when they do, they can be devastating.
02:08That's what happened with Storm Daniel when it reached Libya in October 2023.
02:12It led to massive floods, caused dams to break, and killed at least 4,300 people.
02:18While climate experts don't yet know if medicanes will happen more often in the future,
02:22they do know that the Mediterranean Sea is the most affected by marine heatwaves in Europe.
02:27And this could increase the intensity of storms.
02:58But how exactly do rising ocean temperatures lead to extreme weather events?
03:04In certain atmospheric conditions, when the ocean heats up, water evaporates.
03:08Moisture is absorbed by the air.
03:11If this water vapour meets cold air at higher altitudes,
03:14the temperature of the ocean rises and the water evaporates.
03:18The temperature of the ocean rises and the water evaporates.
03:22Moisture is absorbed by the air.
03:24If this water vapour meets cold air at higher altitudes,
03:27it condensates and eventually forms clouds.
03:30Clouds can then release their moisture over land in the form of water drops.
03:35The result? Heavy rainfall, and in the worst case, floods.
03:43This exchange of heat and moisture between the ocean and the atmosphere can also fuel storms.
03:49They absorb the warm, water-filled air and become bigger.
03:53And the warmer the ocean, the faster the storm can grow.
03:57Global warming may also lead to more so-called compound events,
04:01where several weather events occur at the same time.
04:04Marine heatwaves and land heatwaves often happen together,
04:07and high temperatures on land can trigger droughts, which in turn can contribute to wildfires.
04:13Some studies say we might experience more of these simultaneous events.
04:17Marine heatwaves, in our specific case,
04:20we proved that they were statistically related to the occurrence of atmospheric heatwaves.
04:25We also were able to understand
04:31that there is a coincidence also between marine heatwaves and droughts and wildfire events.
04:37They'll probably happen more frequently in a compound way,
04:40because that's what we've been seeing throughout the last decades.
04:44As marine heatwaves are said to become more frequent, mitigating global warming is crucial.
04:49But the reality is that we must prepare for a future of more intense storms, floods and droughts.
04:55The question isn't whether these natural disasters will stop.
04:58It's how we learn to live with them.