At a Glance

The patch of warm water spans more than 386,000 square miles.It is 9 degrees above average for the latitude.

East of New Zealand, satellites have detected a patch of ocean one and a half times the size of Texas where the temperature is well above average.

The area, which shows up as a big red blob on maps created by the operated by the Climate Change Institute, is 9 degrees " for the latitude and time of year," James Renwick, a professor and head of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, told CNN.

“It’s the biggest patch of above average warming ," Renwick told the Guardian. Normally the temperatures in that area of the Pacific are about 59 degrees, at the moment they are about 68, he said.

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Renwick told the New Zealand Herald had been experiencing "quite high pressures, sunny skies, light winds, so the surface of the ocean would warm up quite quickly."

He said the blob, which spans more than 386,000 square miles, is likely a shallow layer of warm water on the surface that would likely fade and then dissipate.

"I wouldn't call it a sign of global warming or anything like that, it's just what happens sometimes in the ocean. As far as I am aware, it's just a patch of water that's had a lot of sunny skies and not much wind."

While Renwick thinks the current patch is caused by recent weather events, scientists say marine heat waves are becoming more common in a warming world. From 1925 to 2016, there was a in annual marine heat wave days globally, according to a study in Nature. Global warming will cause further increases in marine heat wave days, the study said.

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A large marine heat wave with temperatures more than 5 degrees above average was seen , according to NOAA Fisheries. Researchers are studying it to see if it affects marine life the way . That heat wave led to problems with salmon breeding and migration, shifted predator distributions and stranded sea lion pups on beaches when their mothers had to forage further away.

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