Hurricane season is over.

It ended on November 30th, but its impact will be felt for a long time.

This year, Florida's Gulf Coast saw three powerful storms, two back to back in southwest Florida.

Is this the new normal for storm seasons?

Joining me now is Doctor Chris Landsea, the National Hurricane Center chief of the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch.

Doctor Landsea, thank you for coming over from Miami to join us.

We appreciate it.

Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be here at Florida Gulf Coast University today.

This is a great opportunity.

It's my first time here.

Well, we know you've been a you're going to be speaking today to students and staff.

So we're grateful for that.

So Doctor Landsea, it was a very difficult storm season for folks on our Gulf Coast.

And, you know, a lot of folks are wondering, is this what we need to expect moving forward, or are we especially vulnerable being here on the Gulf as temperatures warm?

Yeah, there are some hurricane seasons where you see repeating patterns, where one, you know, part of a state gets hit, and then very soon after and the same part gets hit.

We don't quite understand why that happens, but there's no expectation that's going to continue.

We are in a busy period, though.

So since 1995 it's been a very most hurricane season, has been very active.

And Florida of course is a big target.

So as long as we remain in this active period, you know, there may be 1 or 2 or more hurricanes to hit Florida.

So the key is being vigilant going forward and being ready to take action if needed.

So you've spoken about a view that some might be surprised by that.

You don't think there's a significant link between climate change and current hurricane intensification?

Right.

So the question about how is global warming and that's manmade, causes through extra greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, how that affects hurricanes is really important.

We need to understand that and what we think we understand now from theory and climate models is that hurricanes should be stronger, but by a very small amount.

So by the end of this century, we're expecting hurricanes to be 3 to 5% stronger at the end of the century.

So it's a very small amount, a long way off.

Moreover, the number of storms and hurricanes is projected to go down.

We may have 20 or 30% less storms and hurricanes and general less, not more.

The big concern I do have with global warming, though, is sea level rise.

The sea level the Gulf of Mexico including has been rising about one inch per decade.

Sounds small, but that is likely to accelerate, and we could have 2 or 3ft or even more of higher Gulf of Mexico levels than now, than, you know, in the future, than we have now.

So whenever a hurricane is going to make landfall, there's going to be more storm surge.

That's that very dangerous saltwater flooding.

So the the question about global warming is very nuanced when it comes to hurricanes.

But again, my concern is the sea level rise and the storm surge flooding.

A lot of folks in.

And specifically I'm thinking of, Charlotte County had never seen, so much water before.

Specifically thinking about Inglewood Beach, some parts of Punta Gorda.

What do you want folks to maybe learn from this last storm season?

Yeah, every hurricane is different.

And so you have to prepare differently because there there could be threat from storm surge, could be threat from rainfall flooding.

It could be from the wind.

And so whatever the local emergency manager is suggesting, we need to listen to.

And so it's our job as forecasters to provide the predictions and get the word out about the potential impacts.

And then, you know, because we want people to take the right action at the right time, don't want to overreact and freak out a week in advance.

Sure.

But you don't want to wait until the storm surge is getting in your home before trying to get out.

And if we can end on the accuracy of forecasting, you know, I heard you speaking earlier about how obviously forecasting has improved tremendously.

But that perhaps we were getting almost to the limit.

Could you talk about that as far as improving forecasting?

Right.

In my lifetime, we've seen incredible advancements in how our track forecasts, where hurricanes are going to go, as has improved.

So as an example, back in the 1980s when I was a student, an average three day forecast had an error of 300 miles.

So if we said a hurricane was going to hit Fort Myers in three days, it really could have been anywhere from Havana, Cuba up to Cedar Key.

So huge chunk of the coast today.

The errors are so small they're not zero.

But now the error is less than 100 miles.

So if we say a hurricane is coming toward Fort Myers now, we're looking in anywhere from about Everglades City to Tampa.

So we've really narrowed down that cone.

The cone has gotten smaller, which represents the uncertainty.

We're never going to get to zero, though, and there are some signs, suggestions that we may be kind of plateauing how good we can get.

And at some point we really will have errors on track forecasting that we can't ever get get rid of.

Doctor Landsea, we so appreciate your insight.

Thank you so very much.

You're welcome.

Glad to be here.

Thank you.

Horseshoe crabs have been around for nearly 500 million years, even before the dinosaurs.

Today, their blood is critical to many of us because it's unmatched in its ability to detect bacteria and medicines.

Even after decades, the species is still being captured to harvest that blood.

And now researchers are concerned about the population.

Local citizen scientists are helping researchers figure out how the species is doing works.

Tom Bayless reports.

They're spiny, armored, and related to spiders.

While there are still a lot we don't know about horseshoe crabs.

It's clear they are one of the most important animals in our oceans.

They were some of the first animals that, you know, we have fossil record of on the planet.

So they got it right the first time, and they haven't had a need to, fix it or try to change it.

So they're very cool.

Samantha Easterling is a volunteer coordinator for Florida's Horseshoe Crab Watch program in southwest Florida.

She spends her time observing, measuring, and tagging the creatures, and she shares her knowledge with others.

Easterling leads classes like this one at the Naples Zoo.

These citizen scientists will head to Southwest Florida beaches to look for crabs when they find them.

The volunteers will report the crabs location, sex, size, and if they have a tracking tag.

This data will help researchers learn more about the overall health of Florida's horseshoe crab population.

The horseshoe crabs are definitely intertwined with those different populations.

A lot of the shorebird people are actually here today to help with the horseshoe crab surveys, because the horseshoe crab eggs are connected with the shorebirds coming over during their migration to eat those eggs and be ready to keep flying.

And so everything is interconnected.

Claire Chard is a biological scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She says the citizen scientists are helping throughout the state and encourages anyone to take part.

It's just that we want the people that are living in this area or visiting to be involved with it.

These animals are so critical to our environment and we're all interconnected, so it's great for having the ability to get out, do a survey.

It's pretty low impact and you feel like a lot closer to the environment.

Naples resident Deborah Woods is a long time citizen scientists focusing on shorebirds and eagles.

She started counting crabs four years ago, woods says.

As our climate changes, it's important to track what's happening to the ocean.

Not just that the citizen science of and providing the data for sustainability going into the future so that my grandkids will have the same opportunities that I do for loving nature.

FWC hosts these training sessions throughout the year.

You can also find a virtual version on their website.

If you find a horseshoe crab on the beach with a tag, you can report it at the Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch.

If you're already going on a nice beach walk, why not do a survey with us?

For GCU news, I'm Tom Bayless.

As the season of giving begins, many of us feel inspired to support charities and causes close to our hearts.

But with so many options, how can you ensure your donations make an impact?

We offer you tips on giving safely and wisely to trusted charities.

Joining us now is Charity navigator CEO Michael Thatcher.

Michael, thanks so much for joining us today.

We appreciate it.

I'm really glad to be here.

Thank you.

So a lot of us are in the giving spirit at this time of year.

How does one know that the charity, that we're thinking about donating to is reputable, is reliable, is responsible.

Where do we start?

The one of the easiest ways to start is, first of all, is it a charity and know that they are actually a legally registered 523 charity, which is what the IRS code is.

Simplest ways to do that is, come to a site like Charity navigator and put the organization's name in our search bar, and they'll come back and they'll they'll be rated, they won't be rated.

But if they don't come back and you don't find them, that may mean that they're not actually a legally registered charity.

They might be something else.

So since you bring it up, a lot of us get invitations, you know, on social media for giving campaign.

How do we even get a sense of whether the stories that we're hearing about maybe somebody lost a loved one?

How do we even get a sense of whether those are legit stories?

It can be more safer, I would say more reasonable to go to, to a known charity when you for your giving, particularly when to look at, let's say we're wanting to do something with regard to a disaster that's just happened there going to be a lot of people that are affected, but they're also going to be a lot of very reputable organizations that are engaging in the disaster recovery process.

And if you don't know the individual, I would go to a legitimate, nonprofit in those cases.

So a lot of folks have a cause.

It's really important, to their lives.

And if we have a cause, let's say in mind where we want to give, how do we, you know, figure out which is the best charity to serve that cause it's a great it's a great question.

And I think that's the that's the starting place in our giving is that, you know, we're, we're we're affected by a cause.

It either makes us, you know, we're it makes us happy, makes us sad, makes us angry.

We want to we want to do something, take that energy and then actually find organizations that are that are doing that.

So one mission alignment does the mission of the organization and the work that they're doing aligned with your your mission and your purpose around that cause?

Using a using a platform like Charity navigator can help you refine that further by actually saying, all right, these folks are doing it now, who's actually doing it?

Well, and that's where ratings come in.

And looking in the same way you would use a rating to find a restaurant, you can use ratings to find organizations to support.

Can you give us some red flags when we get a request to to give to a particular charity?

Any red flags out there that we should say, that may not be what you know, appears to be one of the red flags is when you're being rushed, anybody who's really pressuring you and trying to get you to move fast, to pull out your credit card slowed to slow them down, if they can't give you the name of the organization and it's, what we call an iron number, which is the C equivalent of a Social Security number, someone who works for an organization ought to be able to have access to that number.

And that's one way of knowing it's a legitimate organization.

The other area that people get, scammed in is look alikes.

So the name is spelled a little bit differently.

But it's not actually the nonprofit.

It'll sound familiar, but it's not the right organization.

Again, if you look them up, you can actually, you know, even with the spelling they give you, if it comes out false, you know, you're in a you're in a place you don't want to be.

there's so many great organizations doing great works in the, charity, nonprofit world.

How critical is this time of year for them and us?

Digging a little bit deeper into our pockets to give at this time of year as far as their sort of overall budgets, it's really the we call it the giving season.

And that's basically the Tuesday after Thanksgiving or Giving Tuesday all the way through December 31st.

It's when most nonprofits in the U.S. receive 30 to 50% of their annual revenue.

The sector is really counting on you, the folks that, are serving, the people that you care about or taking care of animals, the environment, whatever, whatever it is you care about.

Now's the time when nonprofits need your support.

They need it all year round.

But given that this is a time where we generally are giving, and we're also thinking about those that are less fortunate, now is a really good time to be generous.

Michael, we appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me here.

coming up on southwest Florida in focus.

A look at an effort to add more art to some southwest Florida parks.

Big changes are coming to Fort Myers now that voters agreed to spend $75 million to create new parks and upgrade existing ones.

One centerpiece of this renewal effort, Art at Lions Park.

Artists have already got a jumpstart on this initiative.

Photojournalist Amanda in Whitmore captures the transformation.

Where the Fort Myers Mural Society and this is our initiative to put art in the parks.

Our theme is native species to this area of southwest Florida.

And these are animals that are actively alive and aggressive in the area.

We have 26 total artists that are involved in the project, many of whom are local.

There's a large group from Sarasota, Chalk Artists Association.

It includes international artists.

We've got Thailand, Spain, Australia, I believe Italy.

Student artists.

We have retired area teacher artists.

So it's a really good group.

The city has an initiative called the Go Bond Initiative, and it's a program that will allow the city to expand its parks department.

So part of the funding that's awarded a certain percentage of it has to go to arts, the Lions Club of Lee County.

They refurbished the lion here on the park.

When you partner with the community and you ask them what they want.

This is it.

We feel blessed that we've been able to coordinate with neighborhoods and ask the people that live there what they want.

This is what happens.

They totally redid the playground, so it is really nice and clean and fun for the kids.

We did the mural walk and enjoyed all of the incredible pictures.

We'll trade off playing pickleball and the kids are at the park playing.

And so it's it's a really nice space now and we're enjoying it.

We like to be on the forefront of everything murals and public art.

So if there's a mural around, we probably painted it.

Coming up next week on Southwest Florida in focus.

Quitting medicine.

Why an alarming number of doctors are walking away from patients.

One southwest Florida doctor tells us why she put down the scalpel and happier you this new year.

How you can improve your mental health in 2025 by building new friendships and deeper relationships.

We thank you so much for watching In Focus this year, and we look forward to continuing our mission in 2025 to cover the important issues facing Southwest Florida and bringing you the colorful stories of our community.

Happy New Year, everyone!