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Tourists often head to the Mediterranean coast for its breathtaking beaches and warm sea, but these enjoyable temperatures mask a long-term warming trend that fuels torrential rains and intense storms.

This pattern is clear in the data: since records began in 1979, the temperature of Europe’s seas has been rising, and the past three years have been significantly warmer than any previous year on record.

In 2024, Europe’s seas hit their highest annual average surface temperature on record (13.73°C), according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

That is almost 0.7°C above average and 0.06°C warmer than the previous record set in 2023. 

Last year, record highs were observed in the central North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black, Norwegian, and Barents Seas.

In the Mediterranean Sea, average temperatures reached a record 28.7°C on 13 August 2024, which surpassed the previous record of 28.3°C set in July 2023.

These extremely high temperatures correspond to marine heatwaves, periods of unusually high sea temperatures that can last weeks, months or even years.

The phenomenon leads to coral bleaching and mass mortality of ocean species, as well as socio-economic consequences. Marine heatwaves disrupt fisheries, aquaculture, and tourism, leading to financial losses.

Also known as “underwater wildfires”, high sea temperatures in the Mediterranean have been linked to more intense storms and more extreme rainfall.

According to the Mediterranean Centre for Environmental Studies, sea surface temperatures play a key role in shaping weather patterns, such as sea breezes during the summer months and the occurrence of torrential precipitation in autumn.

In 2024, unusually warm Mediterranean and Black Sea waters in August may have increased evaporation of large amounts of moisture into the atmosphere, and worsened Storm Boris, which brought severe flooding to central and eastern Europe in September, and to Spain’s Valencia region in October.