LOCAL EDITION — Fort Myers, Southwest Florida

Climate isn't a debate here. It's the water temperature this afternoon.

Where Lake Okeechobee meets the Gulf — and where warming water, algae and sea level land on the same coastline. We publish what the instruments say — updated continuously, sourced to the agency that recorded it.

Today's local brief

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Automatically generated from live public data — not written reporting. Sources listed below each section.

Today's climate stories

Three or more stories every day, curated from climate and energy newsrooms and delivered in the ClimateNews Daily Signal.

Why Germany is building an ark for US climate dataFearing the Trump administration might meddle with U.S. climate data, ​scientists​ in Germany are preparing to transfer vast troves of that data to repositoriesGrizzly reality: US states grapple with uptick in encounters between bears and humansBears are increasingly entering places where humans live in the US, forcing wildlife workers to make tough decisionsDan Thompson, supervisor of the large carnivThe Trump Administration’s Critical Minerals Agenda Comes for America’s ‘Forgotten Wildlife Corridor’This investigation was reported in a collaboration between Inside Climate News and Columbia Journalism Investigations. MCDERMITT CALDERA, Ore.—On a cold and oveEcoBoard.com expands Florida environmental alerts statewideEcoBoard.com broadens its free environmental alert service to all 67 Florida counties, enhancing access to critical water quality information.After a Deadly Flood, What Does Climate Justice for Nepal Look Like?From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Tanuja Pandey, a climate justicePublic environmental measurements for 288 placesEarthPortal.com publishes public data service for 288 global locations
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Right now in Fort Myers

Live readings from NOAA's Fort Myers station and state lab sampling. These are the numbers that decide whether the water is pleasant, profitable or dangerous this week.

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Sources: NOAA Tides & Currents station 8725520 · Florida DEP Algal Bloom Sampling · live spill map at EcoBoard.com · current conditions for the whole coast at EarthPortal.com

Active warnings

National Weather Service alerts currently in effect for Southwest Florida.

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Source: NOAA National Weather Service

Why we report this locally

Because the costs are local, measurable and already here — in emergency rooms, in tourism receipts and on the end of a leash.

Economic
$2.7B
Tourism losses from the 2018 red tide statewide — about $1.27B of it in Southwest Florida.
UCF Rosen College study, via SCCF
Economic
$5.3B
What a single harmful algal bloom could cost Lee County in lost recreation and quality of life.
Greene Economics, via The Invading Sea
Health
ER visits
Peer-reviewed research documents increased emergency room admissions for respiratory illness during Florida red tides.
Kirkpatrick et al., Harmful Algae (NIH)
Health
Pets
Dogs drink while swimming and ingest more grooming algae off their fur. Some cyanotoxins act within minutes. Keep pets out of blooms.
Live toxin results at EcoBoard.com

Get the local climate brief

A short email when the measurements change in a way that matters — water warm enough to drive blooms, toxins detected nearby, sea level or severe weather events. Free, and you can stop anytime.