PARIS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Mediterranean Sea recorded its highest average sea surface temperature ever for the month of June on Sunday, reaching 26.01 degrees Celsius, according to French media reports citing data from the European Copernicus program analyzed by Meteo-France.
"We have never recorded such a high daily temperature in June, averaged over the basin, as Sunday," Thibault Guinaldo, a researcher at the Center for Satellite Meteorology Studies under Meteo-France, told French news outlet AFP.
Currently, the sea surface temperature in the Mediterranean is approximately 3 degrees Celsius above the seasonal average for the 1991-2020 period.
Meteo-France warned in a statement that these unusually high sea temperatures, up to 5 degrees above normal, could worsen "tropical nights" around the region, making nighttime conditions increasingly oppressive during the ongoing heatwave. The agency expects the heat to intensify further across France until Wednesday. ■