Relatively cool year in Gulf of Maine still 5th hottest on record [Video]

Last year was the fifth hottest year on record in the Gulf of Maine, continuing a trend that makes it one of the fastest-warming bodies of ocean on Earth, according to the latest annual report from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Late winter and spring 2023 saw record-setting sea surface temperatures about five degrees above the climatological average. The second half of the year was relatively cool, thanks partly to the mixing effect of a passing storm, and much closer to long-term normals.

The outcome was an average temperature of 52.6 degrees, or 1.9 degrees above the long-term norm, a result that the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, or GMRI, found consistent with the long-term trend of warming conditions driven primarily by anthropogenic climate change.

According to GMRI’s warming report, eight of the last 10 years have been among the Gulf’s top 10 warmest.

“The complete picture of conditions for the Gulf of Maine reveal a region experiencing profound changes,” the report …