diff --git a/pygmt/datasets/load_remote_dataset.py b/pygmt/datasets/load_remote_dataset.py
index ea8cbb437ed..a3ea43f94b7 100644
--- a/pygmt/datasets/load_remote_dataset.py
+++ b/pygmt/datasets/load_remote_dataset.py
@@ -322,7 +322,7 @@ def _load_remote_dataset(
     # Remove the actual range because it gets outdated when indexing the grid,
     # which causes problems when exporting it to netCDF for usage on the
     # command-line.
-    grid.attrs.pop("actual_range")
+    grid.attrs.pop("actual_range", None)
     for coord in grid.coords:
-        grid[coord].attrs.pop("actual_range")
+        grid[coord].attrs.pop("actual_range", None)
     return grid