When people speak about global warming, most times they are referring to atmospheric temperatures. However, it's not how the science of warming actually shakes out. In fact, a mere 2.5 percent of all the heat absorbed by planet Earth ends up in the air, while 93 percent of it ends up in the oceans. This very short animation from Climate Central makes the scale of the difference clear:
That puts the so-called global warming "pause" that briefly consumed climate news last year in proper perspective. (Ocean temperatures saw no such thing.) Slight changes in the rate of absorption by the oceans can have huge effects on atmospheric temperatures — and according to recent research, the Pacific Ocean is about due to dump out a whole lot of heat. If so, then the next several years will be hot ones here on land.
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