In a complete reversal of the usual pattern, where water temperatures are generally cooler than land temperatures, for the second year running, the ocean was actually hotter than land in some regions, marking another ominous sign of the strange and unpredictable effects of continued global warming.

After last years records, Deke Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the climate data center said that the pattern is so unusual that meteorologists may want to study that pattern to see what’s behind it.

Sea temperatures are much harder to change than air temperatures, as anyone trying to warm a swimming pool can attest. It takes five times the heat energy to warm water than air.

Despite the difficulty of raising water temperatures, in Indonesia this May for example, ocean water measuring 93 degrees was extraordinarily anomalous: measuring 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. (more…)