Take a look at the images below. They show alarming anomalies in the sea surface temperatures in numerous regions, especially off the NE coast of North America.

The large dark area in the first image shows waters which are currently at least five degrees warmer than usual off the southeastern tip of Canada along the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

The warm pool means that sea temps in Sydney Nova Scotia are almost (but not quite) as warm as the sea temps in our own Sydney Australia right now, which doesn't happen often – even when it's their summer and our winter.

Image: You could just about hold the Boston Tea Party and get a hot cup of tea. Source: NOAA Coral Reef Watch.

Meanwhile the extreme anomaly extends down the US coast about as far as Boston.

Sea surface anomalies are of course always to be expected. Due to weather, ocean currents, broad-scale climate drivers like El Niño and La Niña, plus other factors, sea temperatures tend to bob up and down like a cork in the ocean – to an extent.

But the warm water pool off North American right now is an extreme anomaly, and quite likely a strong signal of the overall warming of the ocean which has been linked to climate change.

The second image emphasises the point about the overall warming of the oceans.

Image: Anomalies worldwide are a lot more on the warm than the cool side, and by larger margins. Source: NOAA Coral Reef Watch.

The image shows the current sea surface temp anomalies across the globe. As you can see, the warm anomalies are both more numerous and more extreme than the cool anomalies.

Also, the cool anomalies are only a degree or two below normal in most places, whereas several warm anomalies extend beyond five degrees above normal, as mentioned.

Meanwhile a buoy in South Florida has registered what may turn out to be the highest sea temperature on record.

The Manatee Bay buoy – located off the southern US mainland between the Florida Everglades and the Florida Keys – registered a temperature of 101.1°F which translates to 38.4°C.

Excessively hot waters off the coast of South Florida rose to an unfathomable level Monday evening. A buoy about 40 miles south of Miami posted a temperature of 101.1 degrees. For comparison, the “ideal” temperature of a hot tub is 100 to 102 degrees. https://t.co/1zNFynZIPz

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 25, 2023

The Washington Post helpfully provided a link to the site jacuzzi.com which says that the ideal hot tub temperature is 100°F to 102°F. In other words, the water off southern Florida was literally as warm as a hot tub this week.

Global ocean temperatures have risen by 1.3°F (about 0.7°C) since the late 19th century and are continuing to climb, according to America's National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).