Flooding will get worse in Tampa Bay. Tropical Storm Eta showed how.

It was only a tropical storm.

In November 2020, Eta’s eye brushed by Tampa Bay, winds blowing about 70 mph offshore.

The storm sent waves crashing onto the Howard Frankland Bridge, flooded thousands of properties and caused millions of dollars in damage, stunning people who expected a soft blow.

Within a generation, the toll could be much worse. Eta, hitting as tides peaked, was a preview of the way sea level rise around Tampa Bay will make even weak storms more destructive.

The Tampa Bay Times, in a first-of-its-kind partnership with the National Hurricane Center, sought to measure how much. The results are daunting.

If the same storm struck again 30 years later, 17,000 properties might flood, nearly twice as many.

https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2022/hurricane/rising-threat/climate-change-flood-maps/

Lots of property owners close to the water will suffer from the continuing rise in the sea level and the predicted increase in storm intensity over the next 30 years.

This kind of detailed analysis in a local paper is unusual these days, and is welcomed by those who recognize the seriousness of climate change. It will probably be ignored by the majority of homebuyers who believe the Florida dream is to have a house on the water, but who may end up with a house in the water.