The German Bight has never been warmer. - The North Sea experiences a temperature peak.
The North Sea has never been cozier than in the year 2023, as gathered from research conducted by the Biological Station Helgoland of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven. The average water temperature of 11.87 degrees recorded that year was unmatched by any previous record-keeping since 1962. Shockingly enough, it reached to be the highest temperature registered in this institute's "Helgoland Reede" long-term data series. This phenomenon is attributed to global warming, which could potentially pose detrimental impacts on the marine ecosystem.
Moreover, scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute discovered a substantial increase in temperature for the North Sea in 2023. Evidently, January until April 2024 formed part of the ten warmest months in the history of the said series. As stated, March 2024 was quite possibly the most scorching month of them all, with an averaged water temperature of 6.9 degrees Celsius.
The stats unravel a connection between the temperatures in the German Bight and the weather trends on land. Prof. Karen Wiltshire, the director of the Biological Station Helgoland, provided an insight on how the North Sea heats up so quickly. "Think of the North Sea as a large puddle enclosed by land masses," she said. "Hence, the temperature pattern of the mainland is due to be equally conspicuous as the one of the seawater." There's a high likelihood that marine heatwaves might not only impinge on the surface waters but also endanger the seabed habitats.
