Climate change: Sudden heat increase in seas around UK and Ireland
Some of the most intense marine heat increases on Earth have developed in seas around the UK and Ireland, the European Space Agency (Esa) says.
Water temperatures are as much as 3 to 4C above the average for this time of year in some areas, according to analysis by Esa and the Met Office.
The sea is particularly warm off the UK's east coast from Durham to Aberdeen, and off north-west Ireland.
The Met Office says the reason is partly human-caused climate change.
But other, less-understood natural and man-made factors appear to be driving temperatures up further.
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The Esa data shows sea water around virtually the entire coastline of the British Isles is warmer than usual.
Scientists warn that intense heat like this can kill fish and other sea life, sometimes on a huge scale.
Marine heatwaves - prolonged periods of unusually high sea surface temperatures - are also associated with more extreme weather because storm systems pick up more energy and can become more intense and longer-lasting.
The warm sea around the UK comes as air and ocean surface temperatures worldwide have been spiking sharply in recent months.
Global sea surface temperatures for both April and May were the highest ever recorded in Met Office data that goes all the way back to 1850.
In May the average ocean temperature was 0.85C higher than normal for the month, according to figures from the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
We have seen a series of extreme heat events around the world with unusually high temperatures helping fuelling record-breaking wildfires in Canada that blanketed New York and other North American cities in smoke.
Asia has also been affected, with monthly records broken in China and in parts of Siberia.
At the same time the extent of the sea ice in the Antarctic is the lowest on record for this date by a large margin.
Professor Albert Klein Tank, the head of the Met Office's Hadley climate research centre, does not believe the array of global temperature records signals that the Earth has passed some kind of climate tipping-point.
"All of these elements are part of natural variation within the climate system which are coming together to elevate sea-surface temperatures to higher levels", he says.
The unusually high temperatures have continued into this month.
The first 11 days of June were the hottest ever recorded worldwide for this time of year, the EU's Copernicus climate and weather monitoring service reported last week.
It said this is the first time that global air temperatures have exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5C during the month of June.
The scientific consensus is that keeping long-term global temperatures below that 1.5C threshold is essential to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
The current high temperatures are expected to be temporary though; the 1.5C threshold relates to average temperatures over a 20 or 30-year period.
cover photo:The sea off the coast of Aberdeen, where this lighthouse stands, is particularly warm