The temperatures are above their normal average this year and while warm water is a key ingredient for hurricanes the unusually warm weather will not have an effect on the number of possible hurricanes.

According to Acting Senior Director at the Department of Meteorology Jeffrey Simmons warm water mainly acts as a source of energy.

“What happens is that during the season between the first of June and the end of November and it’s during that time that the sea surface temperatures in our region would escalate and go up to about 88 degrees and above,” he said.

“But that’s just one of the factors because the water temperature or the heat in the water is really a source of energy for the hurricane itself but the hurricane must first develop.”

Mr. Simmons also told The Bahama Journal the seemingly unusual hot weather for The Bahamas this year is not only local but global.

“We have been experiencing some heat globally really, this year in particular and we’ve been looking at some average temperatures for any particular month,” Mr. Simmons said.

“We have a 30-year mean for these temperatures and what’s been happening especially for the month of May and June on average, the average temperature was at least two degrees above the 30-year mean.”

The hottest temperature recorded for this month was back in 2007 when temperatures peaked at 96.8°F in July and this year the temperatures were not far off as on July 9th of this year the temperature reached 94°F.

The all-time recorded peak temperature for the country is dated back to June 1998 when the temperature reached 97.7°F.

Meteorologists say the trend of a warm summer is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year.