Mediterranean Sea breaks daily temperature record

The sea's daily median surface temperature reached 28.71°C on Monday

Boys cool down in the Mediterranean Sea in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 23. AP

A highest daily temperature was recorded in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday, Spanish researchers said.

Spain's Institute of Marine Sciences analysed data from the satellites used by the European Earth observation programme Copernicus.

"We attained a new record … in the daily median sea surface temperature of the Mediterranean: 28.71ºC," the institute said on Tuesday.

"The last record was in August 23, 2003, with a median value of 28.25ºC."

These findings are yet to be confirmed by Copernicus.

Copernicus recently said that at the beginning of June, global temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5ºC, which is the most ambitious cap for global warming in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Such temperatures threaten marine life. During earlier heatwaves between 2015 and 2019, about 50 species including corals and molluscs, were eliminated.

Heatwave around the world - in pictures

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  An Iraqi man cool himself off in a spray of water during a sweltering hot day at the Al-Khilani square in central Baghdad, Iraq. EPA

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  Children play on water jets at a public square on a very hot afternoon in Madrid, Spain. Getty Images

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  A costumed spiderman drinks during a heat wave in New York. Bloomberg

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  A pedestrian carries an umbrella during a heat wave in Miami, Florida, US. Bloomberg

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  A Palestinian, Mustafa Abdou, repairs fan in his shop amid a heatwave at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Reuters

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  A man dives into a canal during a hot day in Larkana district of Sind province. AFP

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  A man cools himself with a fan while browsing his phone on a sweltering day in Beijing. AP

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  People drink coconut water at a market in Dubai to cope with the hot weather. AFP

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  A worker washes his face to cope with the hot weather in Dubai. AFP

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  An Egyptian girl cools off in the water amid a heatwave, at a Red Sea resort in Hurghada Egypt. Reuters

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  Pedestrians hold umbrellas for protection from the sun during a heat wave in New York, US. Bloomberg

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  A homeless person holds an umbrella to block out the sun on a hot day in New York City. AFP

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  Bottles of water being delivered on a hot summer day in Istanbul. AP

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  Diving into the Treska river near Skopje, as temperatures in North Macedonia soared. AFP

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  A woman takes a photograph of the Acropolis in Athens in high temperatures. AFP

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  A woman shelters from the sun during a heatwave in Rome. Reuters

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  Shelia Nunez, 40, cools her dog with ice while sitting under a shaded bus stop in Phoenix, Arizona. AFP

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  A lion eats an icy treat containing meat and ostrich eggs to cool down during a regional heatwave at the Safari Zoological Centre in Ramat Gan, Israel. Reuters

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  Children play in a water fountain near the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. Reuters

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  Traffic warden Rai Rogers works on his street corner under the hot sun in Las Vegas. AFP

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  A woman uses a fan amid an alert for a heatwave in Shanghai. Reuters

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  Andrea Washington pours water on herself in the Hungry Hill neighbourhood of Austin, Texas. Getty

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  A busy beach in Rabat, Morocco. EPA

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  A person receives medical attention after collapsing in a shop in Phoenix, Arizona, in high heat. AFP

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  An Iraqi dives into the Tigris to beat the heat in Baghdad. AP

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  Youths play in a fountain at a park in the Syrian capital Damascus, as temperatures exceed 35°C. AFP

The Mediterranean region, hit by record temperatures in July, has long been classified as a hotspot of climate change.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had warned that there was a drastic change in the marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean since the 1980s, with a decline in biodiversity and the arrival of invasive species.

IPCC experts have warned that more than 20 per cent of fish and invertebrates caught in the Mediterranean could disappear by 2060 if global warming exceeded the 1.5ºC target.