Over the course of two weeks in late September and early October, the one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated Southwest Florida—flooding homes, burying cars and roads in sand, tearing down power lines and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. They were also just the latest in a string of extreme weather events that have struck our area in recent years.

In 2022, Hurricane Ian smashed into Lee County as a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 149 people in Florida and causing more than $112 billion in damages—$230 million of that in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The following year, Sarasota experienced its driest, hottest year on record, with just 27 inches of rain, well below our typical 49 inches, despite the arrival of rains from Hurricane Idalia in August. And then came this year, when more than 50 inches of rain fell on the area in just three months, and Sarasota was hit by three hurricanes and a no-name June storm that dumped 4 inches of rain in just one hour, flooding downtown.

“We went from one extreme of precipitation to another, and now we’ve gone back to the other extreme,” says Bob Bunting. He’s the chief executive officer and chairman of Sarasota’s Climate Adaptation Center, a nonprofit that studies climate change and how communities can become more resilient to its effects. “The damage is just epic,” Bunting continues. “This is the worst hit we’ve ever had in modern days.”

While dealing with hurricanes has long been a fact of life for Floridians, climate change is making storms more destructive. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, average global temperatures are already roughly 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they were in the 1800s, a shift caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Oceans absorb much of that additional heat, leading to “marine heat waves,” periods of time in which sea surface temperatures spike. According to the Climate Adaptation Center, the Gulf of Mexico was the hottest it’s ever been this past summer, and that warmer water makes storms strengthen more quickly. Warmer air also makes hurricanes more destructive, because it can hold more moisture, increasing the amount of precipitation hurricanes unleash.

That’s what happened to Milton, which intensified “explosively” into a Category 5 storm as it approached Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. Overall, as global temperatures continue to rise, scientists say we can expect more devastating storms. Bunting says the time to prepare for them is now.

“Do we want to put our head in the disappearing sand and make believe that things are like they’ve always been?” he asks. “Or would we like to design a good future for the geography we live in? It’s going to take a change in how we approach things.” According to Bunting, adapting to our new climate means rebuilding higher and stronger and updating infrastructure plans to ensure that our built environment can endure future extreme weather events, as well as making hard decisions about where to allow new development.

One of the themes of the center’s recent Florida Climate Conference was the relationship between climate change and human health—the physical and psychological toll storms and other weather events take on individuals. The conference touched on how climate change can hasten the spread of infectious diseases, worsen air quality and red tide outbreaks, and even exacerbate mental health problems like anxiety and depression.

Another hot topic was how climate change will alter human migration patterns, a trend that Bunting says is already happening. Hurricanes in places like Central America have led residents there to flee north, while Florida residents are being forced to make calculated decisions about whether living near the water is worth it. Some people are even choosing to leave the state, especially in light of rising property insurance rates.

“People in Florida are deciding what kind of risk they can bear—financially, psychologically and physically,” says Bunting. “There’s a quiet movement away from the shoreline by people who can’t afford to take the risk. It’s not really being talked about in these terms, but part of the boom in downtown is people coming to higher ground. These are big issues for Sarasota.”

In Bunting’s view, it will take individuals pressing for change to get elected officials and government agencies to act. “We spend so much money reacting to disasters and so little money preparing for them,” he says. “There’s a million excuses, but the more hits we get, the more obvious it becomes. The best time to do something is right now, while we still have good choices.”