What can you tell us about the prevalence of flowers compared to years past? How about meteorology ditto?

There' seems to be evidence of climate change causing shifts in migration and abundance for many species. Butterflies, like amphibians, from what little I know, are pretty sensitive creatures.

If only science were not in the guillotine.

Use to see the Eucalyptus trees in Capitola, California coveted in Monarchs. They would traverse from South America to points north. Big Sur, Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz were major pit stops for them. Now, not so much. The ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction is taking its toll on them.
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https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/monarch-butterflies-and-climate-change

The first two years of planting the milkweed - I had tons of Monarchs all over my yard. Since then - and each year after - their numbers were dwindling.

This summer the milkweed came up like always in the same areas and more stalks of it grew (a lot of milkweed).

However, I only saw one Monarch Butterfly in my yard this whole summer.

I live in a Chicago Western Suburb. We've had an unusually hot summer along with many air quality warnings due to the fires burning up in Canada. I don't know if that could have been the cause of the missing Monarchs.

I'd like to learn more as to what happened to the Monarchs as well.

My photo Is not as goof as the one at the link. Still, when that "blue" reflects in the Sun, you can't get a bad photo.