BALMY WEATHER BRINGS WARMEST OCEAN IN 100 YEARS AT SAN DIEGO BEACHES

By Miriam Raftery

August 4, 2018 (San Diego) – Looking to beat the heat?  The ocean waters off San Diego are the warmest in a century—reaching a balmy 78.6 degrees Fahrenheit on August 1st to break an all-time record.

“Like other climate change trends, background warming enhances the probability and magnitude of extreme events," said Scripps oceanographer and Shore Stations principal investigator Reinhard Flick.

The high temperature was measured in water samples off Scripps Pier in La Jolla, taken by researchers from Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Researchers said that the record warmth is consistent with similar records for high temperatures set on land as well as a torrent of extreme weather in 2018. 

According to Scripps scientists, records related to heat and intense weather will become easier to break having been given a boost from anthropogenic climate change that has added about 1℃ to ocean temperatures over the past century.