A lot of the energy from global warming has been hiding lately under the surface of the Pacific Ocean—and in the future it will come back out in a burst of heat, a new study concludes.

The study published in Nature Climate Change finds that equatorial trade winds have been blowing harder over the Pacific for the past two decades, forcing more heat down into the ocean.

Since 2001, the average air temperature at Earth's surface has risen more slowly than it did in previous decades. Climate change skeptics have seized upon the "pause" to argue that global warming has stopped, using the current cold winter in the U.S. to buttress their case.

Global warming clearly hasn't stopped—the ten hottest