When Will Florida Be Underwater? For Some Areas, It’s Sooner Rather Than Later (2024)

FAQs

When Will Florida Be Underwater? For Some Areas, It’s Sooner Rather Than Later? ›

Rising sea levels are caused by climate change and sadly this will result in several Florida cities being underwater by 2050. Ice caps are also melting and hurricanes/ storms are contributing to the destruction of low-lying coastal areas. It has been predicted that sea levels could rise as much as eight feet by 2100.

Coastal areas are Florida's most at-risk, and by the year 2100, many of them could be underwater. Sea levels along U.S. coastlines are projected to rise 10 to 12 inches, on average, during the next 30 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

During the early part of the Cenozoic Era, Florida was submerged under a warm, shallow, ocean which explains why our entire state has hundreds to thousands of feet of limestone beneath it! Land emerged from the ocean as sea level fell during the Oligocene Epoch.

Can the Florida Keys adapt to sea-level rise? In a TNC study on sea-level rise, areas of Big Pine Key will be under water in a matter of decades.

According to projections by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, assuming the IPCC's worst-case scenario comes true, the Carolinas, Florida and Louisiana would likely be the worst affected states. North Carolina would lose at least three coastal counties, with others greatly reduced in size.

Key West to Homestead would be underwater, as would a large portion of Miami. Under six feet of sea level rise, all of Monroe County would be gone, while the coastlines around Cape Coral, St Petersburg and Tampa would retreat significantly.

By 2050: Increased tidal flooding, more major flooding

A 1-foot rise in the sea level sends water over streets in the Keys, Miami Beach, barrier islands from Melbourne to Palm Coast, and at least part of every coastal city in Florida. And flooding will be worse.

State officials said that during the “age of dinosaurs” — tens of millions of years ago — the Florida peninsula was underwater, so no dinosaur remains were ever deposited on the land. The land that would become Florida ultimately wouldn't even begin to surface until tens of millions of years later.

During the last glacial maximum, about 20,000 years ago, sea levels were 300 feet lower which caused Florida to have 3 times its present land mass, mainly by the peninsula extending way west. Basically the land mass extended to the east and west almost to the edge of the continental shelf.

Ancient Florida was much larger and drier when humans first arrived here during the Pleistocene era -- the last great Ice Age -- 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Sea levels at that time were much lower, by as much as 350 feet, because so much snow and ice were caught up in making the great continental glaciers to the north.

Will Florida become unlivable? ›

Scientists expect the lower third of the state to be underwater by 2100, according to The Guardian. There are a lot of different scenarios and estimations when it comes to rising sea levels, and some are severe. “In some scenarios, sea levels will rise up to 31in (79cm) by 2060,” The Guardian reported.

By 2025, Some of the Florida Keys Could Be Submerged Due to Rising Sea Levels. One of the most terrifying aspects of global warming is the fact that our planet could be engulfed by its own oceans within the next few years — and unfortunately, it's already happening to low-lying parts of North America.

Experts are estimating that parts of Key West will be underwater by 2040, and the money it would cost to prepare for this is in the billions.

The Bahamas. Many small island nations will be catastrophically affected by sea-level rises in the future, including The Bahamas, which was devastated by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Most of Grand Bahama and Andros Island, along with parts of New Providence, are projected to be underwater by 2050 because of climate change ...

Despite those efforts, Jamaica Beach and Galveston Island are some of the many locations across the nation that scientists predict will be underwater at least once a year by 2050 according to a Coastal Risk Screening tool created by Climate Central, a nonprofit that analyzes and reports on climate science.

Sea levels across Florida are as much as 8 inches higher than they were in 1950, and the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. For instance, sea levels around Virginia Key have risen by 8 inches since 1950, but they have been rising by 1 inch every 3 years over the past 10 years, based on tide gauge data.

Several parts of Florida could be underwater by the year 2100 if climate change leads to a temperature increase of 4.9°, according to this frightening map produced by Climate Central. Coastal areas are most prone to ending up underwater if the sea levels, accelerated by climate change, continue to rise.

Emphasis on average. The reality is that different stretches of the coasts will see wildly different rates of oceanic creep. By 2050, the average rise will be 4 to 8 inches along the Pacific, 10 to 14 inches along the Atlantic, and 14 to 18 inches along the Gulf.

Larger states with relatively low elevations are found in the southern region of the country - both Florida and Louisiana have an average elevation of just 100 feet (31m) above sea level, and large sections of these states are extremely vulnerable to flooding and rising sea levels, as well as intermittent tropical ...

Overall, Cape Coral has extreme risk of flooding over the next 30 years, which means flooding is likely to impact day-to-day life within the community. This is based on the level of risk the properties face rather than the proportion of properties with risk.