India, May 11 -- Ocean temperatures in April were the highest since a record spell of warmth in 2024, climate models showed, as the world's waters heat up rapidly with a strong El Nino event approaching.

The average global sea surface temperature (SST) this April was 21degC, the second-highest ever recorded for the month, just below the record 21.04degC in April 2024, when oceans were gripped by unprecedented heat, according to data released last week by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

At the same time, a broad stretch of waters from the central equatorial Pacific to the western coast of the US and Mexico recorded their warmest-ever April, the dataset showed.

Rapid ocean warming is a key feature of El Nino -- a climate pat...