NASA measured a smaller-than-usual rise in average global sea level during 2025. A mild La Niña shifted rainfall patterns and stored more water temporarily over land, including the Amazon basin. With less water reaching the ocean during that period, the annual increase was lower than the long-term rate.
The result does not mean the broader trend has stopped. Ocean warming and melting land ice continue to raise sea level over decades, while weather cycles move water between land and ocean from year to year. Scientists therefore examine both the short-term variation and the long record. They avoid drawing a climate conclusion from a single year. A temporary slowdown can sit inside a continuing upward trend.