Why the ocean's rise slowed down in 2025
In short: Global sea levels usually climb steadily, but 2025 saw a surprising dip in that growth rate. While warming oceans continue to expand water and melt ice, a specific climate phenomenon acted as a temporary brake, shifting massive volumes of water from the sea onto the land.
The primary driver for this shift is La Niña, the cooling phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. During these events, trade winds in the equatorial Pacific intensify, pushing warm surface water westward toward Indonesia and Australia. This allows deeper, cooler water to rise near South America, potentially lowering global average temperatures by 0.1 to 0.3 °C. In 2025, a relatively mild La Niña triggered heavy rainfall across the Amazon River basin in South America. According to NASA analysis, this massive influx of precipitation effectively 'soaked up' water from the oceans and moved it onto land. This process provided a temporary counterbalance to the long-term trend of sea level rise caused by melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of warming seawater. The data confirms this impact: in 2025, the global mean sea level rose by only 0.03 inches (0.08 centimeters). This was a significant drop from the 0.23 inches (0.59 centimeters) recorded in 2024 and fell well below the long-term average of 0.17 inches (0.44 centimeters) per year established since the early 1990s. However, experts warn that this is a short-lived reprieve. The extra water stored in the Amazon basin will eventually flow back into the ocean, meaning the rapid rise of sea levels is expected to resume quickly. Scientists are currently tracking these shifts using a fleet of satellites, including Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and the twin-satellite mission that measures changes in Earth's gravity to track liquid and frozen water movement.
theme hidden-mechanisms mood reflective
difficulty ,3 topics [
climate-science oceanography nasa
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Is 2025 The Year La Niña Will Raise Sea Levels? What The Experts Say
- Also: NASA Analysis Shows La Niña Limited Sea Level Rise in 2025 - NASA
- Also: NASA Analysis Shows La Niña Limited Sea Level Rise in 2025 - NASA Science
- Also: wmo.int — El Niño/La Niña Update (August 2025)
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