With the Gulf of Maine as a hot spot, the planet's ocean surface temperature for July was the highest ever recorded during that month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And NOAA has identified the Atlantic Ocean off New England, dominated by the currents of the Gulf of Maine, as one of three sectors showing the most extreme increase in temperatures.
NOAA began keeping records in 1880.
According to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., the mean global water temperature for July was 63.1 degrees, which was 1.06 degrees above the 20th century average. NOAA offered no immediate theory for the global or regional temperature anomalies.
But scientists at NOAA noted that the planet is experiencing the periodic climactic upheavals of the El Niño effect, and they also emphasized that these temperature variations are not by themselves signs of global warming.
At Good Harbor Beach yesterday, happy swimmers confirmed the findings.
"It's much warmer than I can remember," said Paul Allen of Lexington, who described himself as a longtime visitor.
"It's not the warmest, but it's really, really, really warm ... maybe it is the warmest," said Steve Goulet of Gloucester whose beach date yesterday was his granddaughter, Isabella Murowski.
Lifeguards Abby White, 25, and Luis Sliva, 21, said they thought they'd been in even warmer water in past years, but their colleague Eric Doe, 25, said, "This is very warm for this time of year."
The proportion of beachgoers in the water — the three agreed — confirmed that, whether just very warm or warmest ever, the typical chill was off the surf at Good Harbor.
The planetary water temperature record for July follows a similar record for June. Each of the past 33 Junes were warmer than the 20th century average, according to Deke Arndt, a climate scientist with NOAA in Asheville who is quoted in a story in McClatchy Newspapers.
There was no official water temperature posted at Good Harbor Beach yesterday, and NOAA's nearest stations that produce real-time temperatures are off Portland, Maine, and about 40 miles due east of Gloucester — stations that record conditions in the larger Gulf of Maine, a subsystem of the Northwest Atlantic.
The Portland station reported sea temperature at 71.6 degrees at 2:50 p.m. yesterday, 10.6 degrees warmer than the average for this time of year at the site, according to NOAA's Coastal Water Temperature Table published by the National Oceanic Data Center. Out in the ocean off Gloucester, the surface temperature was 73.0 at 2:50 p.m.
Average temperatures this time of year in the sector of the gulf between Portland and Gloucester are about 62 to 63 degrees, meaning that the waters are roughly 12 percent to 15 percent warmer than normal.
According to the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System, a non-profit consortium, "The current patterns in the Gulf of Maine are greatly affected by the physical characteristics of the gulf and its coastline. Although currents change seasonally, here's how they generally flow:"
"Cold water enters the gulf over the Scotian Shelf, Browns Bank and through the Northeast Channel. Once in the gulf, water flows around Nova Scotia and into the Bay of Fundy. The coast then deflects currents southwestward ... forming the Gulf of Maine Gyre, which rotates counterclockwise, moving surface waters about 7 nautical miles per day.
"Tidal fluctuations and shallow water over Georges Bank form a secondary, clockwise-spinning gyre. Water leaves the gulf through the Great South Channel and over the eastern portion of Georges Bank," the consortium reported on its Web site.
At least a moderate strength El Niño in the Northern Hemisphere is expected this fall and winter.
"El Niño can help to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity by increasing the vertical wind shear over the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Ocean," the Climate Prediction Center said in an updated statement last week.
Also, the season's first hurricane, Hurricane Bill, has organized in the warmer waters and could make its way toward Bermuda.
Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
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