Sea surface temperature
You are viewing the archived 2015 report.
Key finding
Sea surface temperatures across northern Australia are now almost 1°C warmer, on average, than 100 years ago.
Sea surface temperature anomalies in the Northern Tropics (4°S–22°S, 94°E–174°E), which includes the Coral Sea, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the eastern Indian Ocean, have exceeded the 1961-1990 average each year since 1998. The past four years have been no exception, with sea surface temperatures being 0.3°C to 0.5°C above average each year.
This continues a warming trend which is evident across the entire record (i.e. since 1900). Sea surface temperatures are now almost 1°C warmer, on average, than 100 years ago.
More information:
Indicator: Current sea surface temperature and change over time
Annual mean Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomaly, including a 10-year rolling average. A SST anomaly indicates the amount of temperature variance, negative or positive, from the mean temperature within a set 30-year time period (1960-1990). Data is current as at December 2015.