Kait Parker

For over 50 years, Florida and other sunny Southern states have experienced a migration pattern: the influx of the snowbird, a not-so-rare breed of Northern-state dwellers seeking to escape winter by flocking south to join their sunbird counterparts. But now a reverse trend is taking shape: Some sunbirds are moving out, spurred by the escalating impacts of climate change.

Although raw sewage and gastrointestinal illnesses are rarely topics broached in polite conversation, they’re having a glaring impact in hundreds of towns and cities in the United States. The risk of acute gastrointestinal illness increases by up to 62% after certain kinds of sewer overflows, according to recent research led by a team at the School of Public Health at Boston University. And with increasing extreme rainfall events in the forecast, climate change could make the problem worse.

Editor’s note: Please give a warm welcome to Kait Parker, an award-winning meteorologist who focuses on climate change and environmental disaster reporting. Her work digging into environmental disasters made worse by climate change has involved traveling the United States to create documentaries, a podcast called “Warming Signs,” and daily storytelling for The Weather Channel digital properties.