Sea surface water temperatures in the Channel between Britain and France have reached "extreme" levels, the UK weather service told AFP Wednesday, after England experienced the hottest June on record.
A spokesperson for the Met Office said surface temperatures "reached extreme levels in a pocket north of Brittany" in northwestern France on Tuesday.
The temperature is classed as extreme if it is clocked at 5C above a baseline recorded from 1982 to 2011, according to the Met Office.
Areas of seawater 2-3C above the baseline were also found in the Channel and the North Sea, the Met Office said, citing its Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Ice Analysis (OSTIA) system data.
The extreme marine heatwave "will likely expand a bit to other areas in the western Channel from now to Saturday", the weather service spokesperson added.
Scientists warn that extreme weather events such as heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of human-induced climate change.
Greenpeace UK's senior oceans campaigner Chris Thorne warned Wednesday that "our ocean is boiling in the face of fossil-fuelled climate chaos", with marine habitats "hammered by oppressive heat".
England chalked up its hottest June since records began with rare extreme heat warnings for several days last month, although it was only the second hottest June for the UK overall.
Sea surface temperatures typically lag behind inland ones.
The Met Office said Friday that seawater temperatures had already reached levels usually expected in August, "partially because of last week's record-breaking atmospheric heatwave".
The world's oceans just experienced their hottest June on record and could set fresh highs in the months ahead as El Nino and climate change drive temperatures even higher, an EU monitor said.
Global average sea surface temperatures in June were 20.98C, beating the previous records of 2023 and 2024, according to the EU's Copernicus Marine Service.
The June heatwave caused thousands of excess deaths in Europe, according to estimates in France, Spain and Belgium.
It would have been "virtually impossible" in June without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.
All-time temperature records were broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
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