Marine heatwave found to have engulfed area of ocean five times the size of Australia

World Meteorological Organization report says record heat in 2024 was driven by climate crisis and intersected with extreme weather events

Almost 40 million sq kilometres of ocean around south-east Asia and the Pacific - an area five times the size of Australia - was engulfed in a marine heatwave in 2024, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report has revealed.

WMO scientists said the record heat - on land and in the ocean - was mostly driven by the climate crisis and coincided with a string of extreme weather events, from deadly landslides in the Philippines to floods in Australia and rapid glacier loss in Indonesia.