Discussion of: Houston, J.R. and Dean, R.G., 2011. Sea-Level Acceleration Based on U.S. Tide Gauges and Extensions of Previous Global-Gauge Analyses. Journal of Coastal Research, 27(3), 409–417

A recent article published in the Journal of Coastal Research analysed a number of different sea-level records and reported that they found no acceleration of sea-level rise. We show that this is due to their focusing on records that are either too short or only regional in character, and on their specific focus on acceleration since the year 1930, which represents a unique minimum in the acceleration curve. We find that global sea-level rise is accelerating in a way strongly correlated with global temperature. This correlation also explains the acceleration minimum for time periods starting around 1930; it is due to the mid-twentieth-century plateau in global temperature.