Ocean Warming Breaks Record for Ninth Straight Year
Every second of last year, the Earth’s oceans absorbed the equivalent in energy to 12 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.
Global ocean heat content (OHC) increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2025, according to a report released Friday in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. The study—a collaboration involving more than 50 scientists from 31 international institutions—measured temperature fluctuations in the upper 2,000 meters of the planet’s waters, finding the greatest increases in the Southern Atlantic, the Northern Pacific and the Southern Ocean. Warming waters are linked to increasingly extreme weather patterns, coral reef die-offs and sea level rise.
Earth’s oceans act as the planet’s main thermal energy sink. Absorbing more than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, ocean temperatures serve as a critical indicator of long-term climate change. “Global OHC is the single best indicator that the planet is warming,” said Kevin Trenberth, a co-author and scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012026/ocean-warming-breaks-record-for-ninth-straight-year/