By Anthony Watts
Last week, several media outlets reported on a single seawater temperature of 101.1°F recorded at a buoy in Florida, claiming it was due to climate change. The is false. One single seawater temperature over one day isn’t an indicator of climate change, nor, as the data show, was it unprecedented as media claimed.
Some headlines:
- The Associated Press: South Florida waters hit hot tub level and may have set world record for warmest seawater
- The Guardian: Florida ocean records ‘unprecedented’ temperatures similar to a hot tub
Fox News: Florida water topped 100-degrees twice this week, may have set world record: ‘This is a hot tub. - Al Jazeera: ‘A hot tub’: Florida sees record water temperatures, raising alarm
The Guardian opined:
Records for ocean surface temperature are not kept, but a 2020 study suggested that the highest temperature observed was 99.7F (37.61C) in the Persian Gulf.
…
The growing frequency and intensity of severe weather – both on land and in oceans – is a symptom of the global, human-driven climate crisis that is fueling extremes, experts warn…
In the Associated Press (AP) article, which spawned many of the other articles, there was this statement:
But the buoy at Manatee Bay hit 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit (38.4 degrees Celsius) Monday evening, according to National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto. The night before, that buoy showed an online reading of 100.2 F (37.9 C).
An examination of the actual data from that buoy designated as MNBF1 shows that the peak in temperature of 101.1F (38.4C) was very brief and then the water rapidly cooled off, with such a temperature not being repeated since (see Figure 1 below):
However, what the media missed is that MNBF1 is not an ocean buoy at all, in fact it is partially inland, designated as part of the Everglades National Park, and not in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, as seen in this Google Earth image in Figure 2:
On this Google Earth closeup, seen in Figure 3, we can see this buoy is in exceptionally shallow water, near the shoreline – you can see the bottom of the bay.
Note how shallow the water is, enabling you to see the dark bottom.
One of the most important things that the media missed is the fact that due to the shallow water and placement near land, this buoy is sensitive to tides and wide temperature fluctuations due to the shallow nature of the water. With very shallow water, it is very easy for the sun to heat the sand/mud beneath the buoy, which is dark (which will absorb more sunlight), which will then increase the temperature reading recorded in the water.
Indeed, the high temperature reading correlates closely to low tide. Temperature peaked at 2200 HR GMT – which was after low tide at 1:35PM – water had a chance to warm because sunlight was hitting the bottom.
The media completely missed the fact that this sort of temperature at that buoy has happened before and this was not the highest temperature ever seen there. The record for the Manatee Bay site is 102 degrees. It was set on Aug. 15, 2017. The data from that buoy only goes back to 2004. With such a short period of data, it cannot possibly be representative of any climate trend, which requires at least 30 years or more of data.
Had the media bothered to check, they would have discovered that the buoy is in shallow relatively stagnant water, somewhat inland, and not in the ocean, and therefore not representative of Atlantic Ocean temperatures. They would have also discovered that it was “not a record,” with higher temperatures previously being recorded at that particular buoy. Furthermore, if they had bothered to check tide table, they would have learned that the high temperature correlated with a lower than normal tide, which allowed the subsurface structures heated by the sun to also contribute to heating the water.
Indeed, the water is so shallow where this buoy is placed, it is entirely possible that the buoy itself rests on muddy tidal bottom during extremely low tides.
But they didn’t bother to check. Instead, following the climate crisis narrative they are pushing, they hyped tales of unprecedented ocean temperatures and warned of impending doom.
Meanwhile, as this link to the live data shows, nature has brought the water temperatures back to expected values for this time of year. It is important to note that The Guardian reported, “Normal water temperatures for the area this time of year should be between 73F and 88F (23C and 31C), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”
The “crisis” is over, water temperatures at MNBF1 are back to normal levels, but the incompetent media isn’t reporting on that.
Anthony Watts
Anthony Watts is a senior fellow for environment and climate at The Heartland Institute. Watts has been in the weather business both in front of, and behind the camera as an on-air television meteorologist since 1978, and currently does daily radio forecasts. He has created weather graphics presentation systems for television, specialized weather instrumentation, as well as co-authored peer-reviewed papers on climate issues. He operates the most viewed website in the world on climate, the award-winning website wattsupwiththat.com.
#
Extreme Weather Expert Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.: “Science journalism is broken. No it is not a world record. It’s not even the highest at that station in the past 6 years. When did journalists and editors stop doing journalism and start turning incorrect but viral Tweets into headlines? Recipe for misinformation.”
Florida Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli told CNBC: “These buoys that are inside Florida Bay — so that’s to the north of the Florida Keys and to the South Florida peninsula — they’re all in very shallow, murky, dark water…it’s contaminated with sediment, the water temperatures are reflective of the fact that darker surfaces absorb more heat…“it’s not really comparable to most water measurements…“there are no official records that are kept on water temperature.”
CNBC also debunks claim: The existing record for the hottest ocean surface temperature is 99.7, which was reached in Kuwait Bay in the Persian Gulf. Jeff Berardelli, Florida WFLA News Channel 8′s chief meteorologist and climate specialist, said it’s unclear if Monday’s reading will be counted as a world record. “These buoys that are inside Florida Bay — so that’s to the north of the Florida Keys and to the South Florida peninsula — they’re all in very shallow, murky, dark water,” Berardelli told CNBC. “Because it’s murky, and because it’s contaminated with sediment, the water temperatures are reflective of the fact that darker surfaces absorb more heat.” Berardelli said the unique qualities of the area mean that “it’s not really comparable to most water measurements, which are in more clear water that may have a little bit more water movement — like tidal movement.” … Complicating matters further, he said, “there are no official records that are kept on water temperature.” A spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization told CNBC that the group’s weather and climate extremes archive doesn’t currently track sea surface temperatures.
Even though CNBC debunked the ‘hot tub’ ocean temperature claims, its sister organization MSNBC went full alarmist, ignoring CNBC reporting. See: MSNBC Warns of ‘Boiling Seas’ from Climate Change – MSNBC warned Monday of “boiling seas” due to climate change, citing ocean readings of 100ºF off the coast of Florida. Never shy about employing incendiary rhetoric, MSNBC seems to have forgotten that while the boiling point of water is 100º Celsius, it is actually 212º on the Fahrenheit scale.
