The Mediterranean Sea has reached its highest recorded surface temperature, a worrying milestone made public by the Spanish Maritime Institute on Friday. On Thursday, August 15th, the daily median temperature of the Mediterranean hit 28.9 degrees Celsius, marking a significant increase due to an ongoing marine heatwave.

This heatwave, which has persisted across the Mediterranean, has led to temperatures 4°C to 5°C above the average recorded between 1991 and 2020. The unusually warm waters stretch from the eastern to the western basins, covering nearly the entire sea, signaling widespread environmental impacts.

This new record follows another recent high in July 2023, when the sea’s surface temperature reached 28.71 degrees Celsius. While these figures may seem moderate compared to the land temperatures around the Mediterranean, they are alarming in the context of oceanic temperatures, which typically remain much lower even during the summer months.

The sustained increase in sea temperatures is a clear indicator of the intensifying effects of climate change on marine environments, with potential consequences for marine life, weather patterns, and coastal communities across southern Europe and northern Africa.

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