Michaela Mulligan

Michaela Mulligan reports how climate change and extreme weather touch residents, infrastructure and natural systems, with coverage that turns local conditions into practical, clearly framed guidance. Her work traces the arc from daily forecasts and advisories to longer-term questions of resilience, water use and ecological health. She combines environmental science, public policy and lived experience, often showing what abstract climate risks mean for specific places, institutions and households.

Climate impacts in everyday life

Mulligan’s coverage often focuses on what rising temperatures, shifting weather and a warming climate mean for people at home, at work and in their communities. She explains how extreme heat affects electricity use and household budgets, including pieces on Florida ranking among top states for electricity shutoffs and on how to best use air conditioning during steamy summers to keep systems running smoothly and curb bills. She writes service-focused guides on navigating hot, sweltering days and heat advisories, outlining what residents should expect and how to manage uncomfortable or hazardous conditions.

Her reporting on drought extends this lens, showing how lawn watering, water restrictions and broader development patterns tie into costs for homeowners and stress on regional water supplies.

She brings the same practical approach to colder snaps, detailing what cold fronts mean for local weather, whether they mark a “last gasp of winter,” and how chilly starts to major events like spring break will feel on the ground. Her stories often include clear, contextual explanations of weather terms and climate phenomena, such as “super El Niño” and seasonal hurricane outlooks, linking forecasts to concrete implications for storms, flooding and temperature swings.

Across these pieces she keeps the focus on everyday decisions - thermostats, watering schedules, preparations for heat or chill - anchoring climate coverage in the routines and constraints of daily life.

Weather, hurricanes and extreme events

Mulligan covers tropical systems, hurricanes and severe weather as a continuing thread rather than a series of isolated events. She reports on early-season tropical disturbances, named storms and multi-system outlooks, explaining what forecast probabilities, formation chances and storm tracks mean for rain, flooding and wind in the region. Her work includes forward-looking pieces on what to expect from upcoming hurricane seasons, parsing major forecasts and tying them to local vulnerabilities and preparedness needs.

She also revisits major storms after landfall, examining how communities fare a year on from hurricanes that “walloped” the area and documenting ongoing costs of extreme weather for residents.

Beyond tropical cyclones, she covers lightning storms, red flag fire warnings, wildfires and unusual events such as reported earthquake shaking felt in Florida, consistently translating technical alerts into clear explanations of risk. Her reporting on drought-driven fire danger, burn conditions and water restrictions underscores how multiple hazards can stack - heat, lack of rain, wind and land use - creating compounding threats that demand attention from officials and residents alike. Across these stories, she emphasizes what people need to know now, while situating each forecast or warning in a broader climate pattern.

Water, ecosystems and scientific institutions

Mulligan reports extensively on water - how it moves through rivers, bays and pipes, and how human decisions shape scarcity and quality.

She covers droughts, watering restrictions and water control decisions, including pieces on tighter restrictions during prolonged dry spells and the drying of river stretches after officials close key structures. Her work on seagrass health in Tampa Bay follows scientists into the water, showing how researchers track underwater ecosystems and what their findings suggest about the bay’s resilience in a changing climate.

She links water policy and development by examining whether rapid growth is adding to “water woes,” detailing how increased demand interacts with infrastructure and resource limits.

Her reporting also highlights scientific and educational institutions as part of the climate story, including coverage of USF St. Petersburg’s marine science lab in the months after a catastrophic fire, focusing on recovery and the continuation of research. She writes about environmental data, such as “5 numbers to know” for programs aimed at saving homes from storms, giving readers concise entry points into complex mitigation and resilience efforts.

In pieces on drought, flooding and water restrictions, she often brings in experts and officials to clarify how policies are set, what thresholds trigger action and how residents will feel the effects.

Pollinators, wildlife and urban nature

Mulligan’s work on bees and pollinators blends ecological reporting with hands-on observation and service advice.

She writes explainers on “Florida’s precious pollinators,” including “5 things you may not know” about native bees, and pieces on how to attract more bees to home gardens as habitats decline. In one story she literally puts on a bee suit to get close to hives, using that experience to show how colonies function and why they matter for the state’s landscapes and food systems.

She frames bees as a backbone of Florida that is under pressure, connecting individual yards to statewide trends in pollinator health.

Her environmental beat extends to urban and suburban nature, including coverage of tree canopies after hurricanes, eagle nests threatened by development and wildlife-related investigations such as scattered mothballs on beaches.

These stories often sit at the intersection of conservation, land use and neighborhood change, capturing how decisions about trees, wildlife deterrents and development reshape local ecosystems. By pairing close-up reporting on bees, birds and vegetation with policy and enforcement angles, she shows how climate and environmental issues manifest in backyards, apartment complexes and shorelines, not just in remote wilderness.

Across her body of work, Mulligan’s coverage is distinguished by its combination of clear, service-driven writing and sustained attention to how climate, water and weather reshape everyday life, from home energy use and garden choices to hurricane resilience and scientific research.