668160 external_news 1687353683 1693929624 Ocean temperatures have been off the charts since mid-March 2023, with the highest average levels in 40 years of satellite monitoring, and the impact is breaking through in disruptive ways around the world. The sea of Japan is more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average. The Indian monsoon, closely tied to conditions in the warm Indian Ocean, has been well below its expected strength. Spain, France, England and the whole Scandinavian Peninsula are also seeing rainfall far below normal, likely connected to an extraordinary marine heat wave in the eastern North Atlantic. Annalisa Bracco, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, partially blames El Niño, but underlying everything is global warming — the continuing rising trend of sea surface and land temperatures for the past several decades as human activities have increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. (This story was also covered by The Conversation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fast Company, U.S. News & World Report, Idaho Press, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Nasdaq, Daily Mail, Today (Singapore), The Straits Times, Times of San Diego, Lake County News, and Pressenza.) 

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