Sea surface temperature
You are viewing an archived copy of the 2017 report.
Key finding
Sea-surface temperatures in the Coral Sea and around northern Australia are about +1oC warmer on average than 100 years ago, with record warmth occurring in 2016.
The Coral Sea region (4°S–26°S, 142°E–174°E) borders most of Queensland’s east coast. The Northern Tropics region (4°S–22°S, 94°E–174°E), which is more extensive, includes the Coral Sea, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the eastern Indian Ocean. For these regions, sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies date back to 1900.
In 2016, SSTs in these regions were the warmest on record:
- Coral Sea region SSTs averaged 28.0°C (+0.9°C warmer than the 1961 to 1990 average)
- Northern Tropics region SSTs averaged 28.5°C (+1.0°C warmer than average).
In both regions, SST anomalies have exceeded the 1961 to 1990 average every year since 1998, with 9 of the 10 warmest years on record occurring in this century.
A warming trend in these regions has been evident across the entire period of record, resulting in SSTs that are now about +1°C warmer, on average, than 100 years ago.
More information:
Indicator: Current sea-surface temperature and changes 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 (1961-1990). Data is current as at December 2017.