Oceans Warming Rapidly

Data from the National Oceanographic Data Center shows that the heat content of the global ocean is increasing at a rate three times as fast as the average for the previous 16 years.  The so-called pause in atmospheric warming really means that a lot of heat is being absorbed by the ocean.

Update (July 22):  A study by Shaun Lovejoy at McGill University describes the so-called pause as no more than natural variability.

Update (July 24):  Joe Romm reports on work showing that the temperature rise of the past 15 years has been underestimated due to missing data from the arctic.  Most heat does go into the oceans, but land temperatures may be set to rise rapidly.

Update (August 26):  James Conca explains that there is "more than one way to heat a planet".

Update (January 25, 2015):  The heat content of the oceans continues to go up and in 2014 the Earth had the greatest amount of thermal energy than any year on record.

Update (January 18, 2016):  A study published in Nature Climate Change finds that half of additional heat content of the oceans has been absorbed in the past 18 years. In that time, the portion of additional heat found in the deep ocean has increased from 20 to 35 percent--which means three and a half times as much heat.

Update (January 28, 2018):  A study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences announced that 2017 was the largest thermal energy anomaly on record in the global ocean. For comparison, the amount of energy increase in the ocean equals about 700 times the total annual electrical generation in China.