Sea levels rose even more than anticipated last year: NASA

Sea levels rose even higher than anticipated last year, according to an analysis by NASA.

Last year was the hottest on record for the plane — largely due to human-caused climate change — leading to a sea-level rise of nearly 0.23 inches, significantly more than the 0.17 inches of rise expected, NASA said.

“The rise we saw in 2024 was higher than we expected,” said Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the NASA release. “Every year is a little bit different, but what’s clear is that the ocean continues to rise, and the rate of rise is getting faster and faster.

While a quarter inch may not sound like a lot on its own, the effects are cumulative, with sea levels now 4 inches higher than they were in 1993, when satellites were first used to record ocean height.

Since that first record, sea levels are rising more than twice as fast as they were.

“By the end of the century, global mean sea level is likely to rise at least one foot (0.3 meters) above 2000 levels, even if greenhouse gas emissions follow a relatively low pathway in coming decades,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.