Saibai, Boigu and the many other islands between Queensland and Papua New Guinea have long been subject to the humidity, downpours and high tides between December and April.
But as the planet warms and sea levels rise, the king tides are getting higher every year.
Last weekend, when king tides were forecast, water levels on Saibai - one of the lowest-lying in the region - reportedly reached 3.7 metres above average.
Aunty McRose Elu, a senior Torres Strait Elder, says the water reached high enough to breach the sea walls protecting large stretches of coastline.
"There was water in the houses and water on the road," she tells AAP.
"It was more severe than it was last year," she adds, before urging state and federal politicians to come and see the situation for themselves.
Dr Elu, who is living in Brisbane, says the cemetery where her grandfather was buried was underwater during her visit to her ancestral homelands in Saibai during the high tides.
"It's very, very emotional."
The 2025-26 monsoon season has been the first since a landmark climate case brought by two Torres Strait Elders was rejected by the Federal Court.
The case led by Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai argued the Commonwealth owed a duty of care to protect their Torres Strait homelands from the impacts of climate change.
The court ultimately ruled that the government did not owe a duty of care, though Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney did acknowledge the existential threat human-caused global warming posed to Torres Strait Islanders and that they were at risk of becoming Australia's first climate refugees.
Mr Kabai and Mr Pabai are now appealing the decision.
While the high tides of the monsoon season are not permanent and have been happening for a long time, they are no longer just a "seasonal inconvenience", Climate Collective Zenadth Kes founder Barbara Ibuai says.
High tides could be particularly problematic when paired with the stormy weather, she explains, potentially damaging infrastructure and disrupting key services.
"When you're on those islands, you feel very isolated because with communication infrastructure, there's usually periods of blackout," she tells AAP.
Even on calm days, the floodwaters pose health risks for people forced to wade through them, especially as the heat makes tropical diseases more commonplace.
"If there's a scratch, and kids get scratches all the time, at this time of year it's very, very important to watch it, because within days, it could turn very bad and go into sepsis," Ms Ibuai says.
Food security is another issue as the salt water seeps into the soil and makes it difficult to grow food.
Seafood is also now harder to catch due to degraded marine environments.
"We barge everything in, all of our stuff comes from shops, and the cost of living is just through the roof when finally it gets to the Torres Strait."
Climate change was being felt as a slow-moving crisis on the islands, Ms Ibuai says, both physically and spiritually.
"We are in conversation with the environment," she says.
"The environment is telling us we're working on (borrowed) time here."
Dr Elu was calling on federal and state governments to do more to tackle climate change and stop burning fossil fuels, urging the prime minister and other politicians to come and see the degradation themselves.
"We are so far away from Canberra, from Brisbane, where the politicians are making decisions for us," she says.
"So nobody gets up here to see it for their own selves."
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