There is an odd irregularity occurring in the Atlantic Ocean, and scientists are unable to determine why.
The Atlantic Ocean’s surface temperature reached several new records in the past year, while global temperatures generally broke all previous records.
However, the surface temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean appear to have reversed over the past several months, with a record-breaking decline in temperature.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that data indicates a decline in sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic since May.
The Atlantic seems to have been one or two degrees Fahrenheit colder than usual for this time of year.
Oceans are clearly vulnerable to several weather variations all year long. The Atlantic’s temperatures are typically predicted to climb at this time due to a complex weather pattern known as El Niño, as well as human-caused climate change.
El Niño is the term used to describe warmer-than-average ocean surface temperatures.
Since March 2023, the Atlantic Ocean has been breaking heat records, and a significant part of the cause for this is an exceptionally powerful El Niño that occurred in 2023 and 2024.
However, it appears that the El Niño phenomenon in the Atlantic is going to give way to La Niña, which is characterized by abnormally low water temperatures that occur a bit too early.
Both of these weather patterns are extremely complex and unpredictable because to their susceptibility to rainfall, solar warmth, and trade winds.
But experts are somewhat confused about the abrupt change in Atlantic temperatures and its assumed transition into La Niña, which is usually expected to begin in September.
“We’ve gone through the list of possible mechanisms, and nothing checks the box so far,” said Frans Philip Tuchen, a postdoctoral student at the University of Miami, to the New Scientist.
These unprecedented changes are evidently a cause for concern for the environment.
According to NOAA, variations in El Niño and La Niña weather patterns may affect rainfall in neighboring continents, and it has been demonstrated that Atlantic Niños raise the risk of storms in the vicinity of the Cape Verde islands.
Michael McPhaden of NOAA says it might also affect the ocean’s cycles, with the Atlantic perhaps playing ‘a tug of war’ to postpone the Pacific’s La Niña as the Pacific ‘tries to chill itself and the Atlantic tries to warm it’.
We’re still keeping an eye on whether the Atlantic is truly evolving into La Niña.
In the event that it occurs, local climate projections may alter for the rest of the year.
