Panama City, June 28 (RHC)-- Scientists are sounding the alarm over an extreme ocean heat wave in the North Atlantic, where surface temperatures are as much as 5 degrees Celsius, or 9 degrees Fahrenheit, above normal. 

Marine biologists have described the unprecedented warming as a “marine wildfire” that threatens a mass die-off of fish, oysters and other wildlife.

In Panama, authorities are preparing to reduce the number of ships allowed through the Panama Canal and are considering new weight restrictions on vessels making the transit.  A severe drought has led to a shortage of water needed for locks that help move container ships across the canal.

In the United States, high humidity and extreme temperatures above 100 degrees are forecast to continue in Texas for much of the week.  Parts of Southwest Texas hit 119 degrees Fahrenheit last Friday, just one degree shy of Texas’s all-time highest temperature recorded three decades ago.