30 Cruise Report, RV ATAIR, Cruise 067I033-1, Bremerhaven – Thybor?n – Aberdeen, 23 Jul – 15 Aug 2024 summer conditions observed between 1997 and 2024. Conditions in the western half of the North Sea and in the Skagerrak and Kattegat regions were mostly normal. Figure 6.2. Spatial distribution of the sea surface temperature (SST) ranking for summer 2024 (June, July and August), regionally indicating the nth coldest/warmest summer SST since 1997. Source: BSH. Figures 6.3 and 6.4 highlight the potential temperature obtained from CTD measurements dur- ing cruise 067I033-1 near the suface (5 dbar) and near the bottom. The respective tempera- tures are also compared to a long-term mean field comprised of CTD data from the summer months of the years 2000 to 2020 (NSSS surveys 2000 to 2020, except year 2019). Based on the ship observations, temperatures warmer than 18°C stretched along the entire continental coast, from the English Channel, along the Belgian, Dutch, German, Danish coasts towards Norway (Figure 6.3, left). A band-like pattern with cooler temperatures of < 15°C was present along the eastern British coasts from the Shetland Islands to about 56°N. Also, and even more pronounced as in the previous year, the region east of the mouth of the Humber Estuary off the British coast showed a cool patch with temperatures < 15°C. The 17°C-isotherm showed a rather meridional orientation along 4°E between 53°N and 58°N dividing the North Sea into a warmer half in the east and cooler half in the west. Temperature deviations from the long- term mean (Figure 6.3, right) reveal warmer conditions mostly across the central part of the North Sea and along the German and Danish coasts up to southern Norway. The pattern of temperature deviation seen in the CTD data at 5 dbar does not really match the one seen in the SST anomaly distribution (Figure 6.1), which may be due to the different data and reference periods. The CTD data showed stronger cooling at different locations than the SST data, namely in the regions off the western Danish coast and along the British coast. The southern and southwestern parts of the North Sea were regionally cooler by -1 °C compared to the