Hurricane Milton brought a shocking deluge. The reason why doesn’t bode well for Florida

Water did much of Hurricane Milton’s damage in Florida — but unlike Helene just two weeks earlier, it wasn’t just from the record storm surge that swept over Gulf Coast beaches and communities.

Milton was a massive rainmaker — overflowing canals, rivers and lakes and flooding homes and neighborhoods from North Tampa to Orlando.

Climate change almost certainly made Milton’s deluge worse, scientists found in a new post-hurricane analysis — by perhaps 20 to 30 percent. Its findings don’t bode well for Florida’s future.