Sargassum Tied to Temperature Rise in Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — The monitoring of rising maximum temperatures over the past decade in Playa del Carmen coincides with the high influx of sargassum recorded on the city’s coasts.

This was announced by Luis Antonio Morales Ocaña, a local meteorologist attached to the Secretariat of Civil Protection, Risk Prevention and Firefighters of Playa del Carmen, during the conference cycle “Noches de Inframundo,” organized by Cenotes Urbanos.

The specialist explained that the increase in high temperatures over the last decade is not a coincidence with the arrival of sargassum. Thus, average maximum temperatures rose from 32 degrees to 37 degrees Celsius, with a thermal sensation above 45 degrees.

“Starting in 2014, with this rise in temperatures, nature begins to develop organisms, and in this case, sargassum. In the following year, 2015, during special events in our country, the algae emerged, which affects the Caribbean and comes from the Sargasso Sea,” explained Morales Ocaña.

With this conference, the citizen science organization Cenotes Urbanos concluded its activities in this area for 2025, an event led by Guillermo DCristy and Roberto Rojo.

Morales Ocaña spoke on the topic of “Culture of Prevention in the Face of Climate Change,” providing a large audience with information about this phenomenon and its local impact, which he asserted is already a reality.

“We used to wake up to very pleasant temperatures, that was normal in the area, that’s how it was, but now we wake up to temperatures of 29 degrees, that happened in September and October, and it affects all of us, it’s incredible, this is due to climate change,” he stated.

Sargassum has been a phenomenon that has changed the dynamics of tourism service provision in the Cancún and Riviera Maya area, as response protocols have been established and permanent staff have been hired exclusively to clean the macroalgae.

Morales Ocaña, from his local observation and daily recording of hydrometeorological phenomena, stated that climate change is now irreversible.