The Western Pacific Has Continued Cooling Since The Little Ice Age Ended
A new study suggests the modern (1994-2004) surface temperatures in the South China Sea are colder now than any time in the last 6000 years.
Except for a brief interval ~500 years ago, SSTs have been consistently 2-4°C warmer than today since the middle Holocene in the South China Sea (Zhou et al., 2021).
Image Source: Zhou et al., 2021
This is consistent with many other studies in the western Pacific which also show a “decreasing SST trend” since the end of the Little Ice Age (He et al., 2019).
Image Source: He et al., 2019
Another new study shows there has been no net warming in the climatically important Western Pacific Warm Pool region since 1985 (Mohtar et al., 2021).