GLOBAL OCEAN HEAT STATUS
Global sea surface temperatures are running +1.2°C above the 1981–2010 average — fueling stronger storms, accelerating coral bleaching, and reshaping marine ecosystems worldwide.
YOUR NEAREST OCEAN
Detecting your location to find the nearest ocean temperature reading and compare it to the historical average for this time of year.
GLOBAL SNAPSHOT
Data: NOAA OI SST V2.1 · Open-Meteo Marine API
Updated daily from satellite observations.
6 of 8 ocean basins are running above average. Global ocean heat content set another record in 2025, with the upper 2,000 meters absorbing 23 zettajoules more energy than the prior year.
Data: NOAA OI SST V2.1 (ERDDAP) · NOAA NHC, JTWC, WMO for cyclone counts. Each basin page shows three charts: SST vs. named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes.
SSTs above 26.5°C fuel tropical cyclones. Multiple basins currently exceeding this threshold — rapid intensification risk is high across the Atlantic and Western Pacific.
How SST fuels storms →Sustained SSTs 1°C or more above monthly maximums trigger mass bleaching. The Great Barrier Reef, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean are all in bleaching alert territory.
Understanding coral bleaching →Marine heat waves — persistent anomalies above the 90th percentile — are active in the Gulf of Mexico, NE Atlantic, and Barents Sea. Duration is the key metric: longer events cause more ecological damage.
What is a marine heat wave? →La Niña cools the eastern tropical Pacific but doesn't offset the global signal. The rest of the ocean continues to warm independent of ENSO phase — that's the structural trend.
ENSO and ocean heat →