The Balearic Sea is boiling at a record temperature of over 30 degrees.

On June 24, the buoy that records the water temperature of Maó reached 29.3 °C, and this Monday the one in the Dragonera The temperature reached 30.55°C, record figures that, according to Miquel Gili, a meteorologist from the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), "have never been recorded in the month of June." The Mediterranean is currently at temperatures between five and six degrees higher than usual for this time of year. In fact, Gili explains that the Mediterranean is the "warmest" sea in the world.

This increase in temperature will cause "very high humidity in the lower layers of the atmosphere," explains Gili, who clarifies that this fact "is not a danger" in itself. However, he clarifies that it could favor the formation of storms at the end of summer and cause "very intense" rainfall. It also causes the level of the Mediterranean to rise, with an average increase of 3.3 centimeters per decade since 1993, according to data from the Balearic Coastal Observation System (SOCIB), with an increase in the vulnerability of the coast to storms and erosion.

According to forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), there is more than a 70% chance that this summer will be very hot and with extreme temperatures. In fact, the meteorologist explains that nighttime temperatures are increasingly rising. "If we go back 20 years, having tropical nights where the temperature was between 21 and 22 degrees was something rare, but now there are many and there are also torrid ones."

In this sense, he insists that this year "practically every night this summer will be tropical, and that, in coastal areas such as the port of Palma and Capdepera, it will be torrid." As for the episodes of very high temperatures that last a couple of days, he states that there will be more to add to theheat wave this week, but "it is not yet known how many."

The temperature that experts consider "extreme" could affect the posidonia, whose mortality increases when it exceeds 28 degrees. According to Raquel Vaquer, coordinator of the Balearic Sea Report 2024 – which determines that this sea is warming at a faster rate than the global average – the increase in sea temperature has caused a "massive mortality" of organisms that live fixed to the substrate, such ascoralsand gorgonians, among others.

In addition, the increase in temperature favors the proliferation of foreign species. "The Mediterranean is becoming tropicalized.blue crab, which become established and can affect local fisheries," explains Vaquer. The change in the organisms' feeding interactions can have "direct effects" on fisheries, as species of interest to local fisheries would be lost. Furthermore, there could also be consequences for the tourism sector because, "if the coastal habitat and landscape were to be lost."