Fort Lauderdale Weather Guide

Fort Lauderdale averages a daily high of 83.5 F and a daily low of 70.8 F across the year, with 60.95 inches of rain, under the 1991-2020 normals for station USW00012849 (NOAA NCEI annual normals).

The annual mean temperature in Fort Lauderdale is 77.2 F. January is the coolest month, with a normal high of 75.6 F and a normal low of 60.9 F, while July and August share the warmest normal high, 90.0 F, and August holds the warmest normal low at 77.9 F (NOAA NCEI monthly normals). The gap between the January and August highs is only 14.4 degrees, while the Fort Lauderdale rain normal swings from 2.38 inches to 9.55 inches between months.

The Fort Lauderdale normals station sits at latitude 26.0719 and longitude -80.1536, at an elevation of 3.4 meters (NOAA NCEI). The monthly climate reports for the city are issued by NWS Miami, whose climate page lists Fort Lauderdale as one of four primary South Florida climate locations, with some records from 1839 to 1841 and continuous records from 1912 to the present (NWS Miami local climate page).

Most Fort Lauderdale rain falls from May through October: those six monthly normals total 43.80 of the year's 60.95 inches, about 72 percent (NOAA NCEI monthly normals).

The single wettest month in Fort Lauderdale is June, with a normal of 9.55 inches. July drops to 5.41 inches, then August returns to 7.89, September to 8.02 and October holds at 7.37 (NOAA NCEI monthly normals). The dry months are February and March at 2.38 inches each, with January at 2.90 and December at 2.78. That pattern, a June peak, a July lull and a second wet stretch into October, is the shape the Fort Lauderdale seasonal weather patterns guide explains in more detail.

Single years in Fort Lauderdale swing far from the normal. On the preliminary NWS Miami list for the Fort Lauderdale Area, the wettest year is 2023 with 113.61 inches and the second is 1947 with 102.36 inches; the driest is 1961 with 35.54 inches (NWS Miami top 10 lists). The 2023 total was close to double the 60.95 inch normal.

One day supplied about a fifth of the 2023 Fort Lauderdale total. The NWS Miami daily list puts the wettest day on record at 22.5 inches on April 12, 2023, ahead of 14.59 inches on April 25, 1979 (NWS Miami). A NOAA report of May 8, 2023 gives a larger figure: more than 25 inches of rain at the Fort Lauderdale Airport in less than a 24 hour period, an event the NWS deemed a 1,000-year rain (NOAA). The NOAA report dates the rain to April 13, while the NWS Miami events index files the event as Fort Lauderdale Extreme Rainfall and Flooding, April 12th, 2023 (NWS Miami events index). The two federal sources differ on both the date and the total, and neither page explains the difference, so both figures are given here rather than one chosen.

Fort Lauderdale averages 68.0 days a year with a high of 90 F or more and only 10.9 nights with a low below 50 F, under the 1991-2020 station normals (NOAA NCEI annual normals).

The extremes on the Fort Lauderdale record are 100 F, reached on June 22, 2009 and on August 4, 1944, and 28 F, recorded on January 19 and 20, 1977 and on February 6, 1917 (NWS Miami daily top 10). The NWS Miami page notes that this daily list for the Fort Lauderdale Area was last updated on 07/11/2024, so a reading set after that date would not yet appear on it.

Recent years dominate the warm end of the Fort Lauderdale yearly list. The warmest year is 2015 at a mean of 78.8 F, followed by 2024 and 2020 at 78.7 F, 2023 at 78.6 F and 2019 at 78.5 F; the coldest year is 1969 at 74.0 F (NWS Miami top 10 lists, updated February 19, 2026). Seven of the ten warmest Fort Lauderdale years fall in 2015 or later, and 2025 is not among the ten.

The NWS Miami climate page labels its own figures for Fort Lauderdale as preliminary (unofficial) and points to NCEI for certified (official) climate data (NWS Miami). Certified daily records for a Fort Lauderdale date, as opposed to the preliminary lists, come from NCEI.

September 2026 in Fort Lauderdale ran slightly cooler than normal: the mean temperature was 81.9 F against a normal of 82.7 F, according to the NWS Miami climate summary issued on October 1, 2026 (NWS Miami Fort Lauderdale climate summary, September 2026).

The September 2026 Fort Lauderdale report shows the cooler mean came from the nights. The average maximum was 88.3 F, exactly the normal, while the average minimum was 75.6 F against a normal of 77.1 F. The month logged 12 days at 90 F or more against a normal of 13, and the highest reading was 92 F on September 3 (NWS Miami). The same report lists the September record high as 99 F with the dates 09/12/1935, 09/12/1921 and 09/12/1920, while the NWS Miami daily top 10 list dates the 99 F September reading to 09/13/1935 (NWS Miami daily top 10); the two NWS Miami products disagree by a day.

Storms were frequent at the Fort Lauderdale station that month: the report counts 22 days with thunderstorms and 18 days with fog. The greatest 24 hour rain was 3.43 inches from September 16 to 17, and the highest gust was 38 mph from 210 degrees on September 6 (NWS Miami climate summary). The report puts the September 2026 average relative humidity at 78 percent and the average wind speed at 5.6 mph.

Hurricane season for Fort Lauderdale runs from June 1 to November 30, and the National Hurricane Center puts the Atlantic peak on September 10, with the busiest stretch from mid-August to mid-October (National Hurricane Center).

The center's 1991-2020 climatology counts 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes in an average Atlantic season (National Hurricane Center climatology). Those counts cover the whole Atlantic basin, and only some of those storms come near the city; which ones struck Broward County, and what they did, is the subject of the Fort Lauderdale historical storm impacts guide. The peak of the season lines up with the wettest stretch of the Fort Lauderdale normals, August through October.

The City of Fort Lauderdale asks residents to register for Alert FTL and to keep enough emergency supplies for at least three days (72 hours) (City of Fort Lauderdale hurricane preparedness). Alert FTL is free, sends notifications by phone, email or text, and works with TDD/TTY devices; sign up is online or by calling the city's 24-hour customer service center at 954-828-8000, the same number that shows on caller ID when an Alert FTL message goes out (City of Fort Lauderdale, Alert FTL).

Broward County's official hurricane site carries a 2026 season dashboard and pages on evacuations, special needs shelters and advance registration for sheltering and evacuation transportation. Its contact block lists the Broward County Governmental Center at 115 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301, and the contact line 311 (Broward County hurricane site). The step by step plan for a Fort Lauderdale household is laid out in the Fort Lauderdale hurricane season guide.

The Fort Lauderdale weather section has three deeper guides: seasonal weather patterns, the hurricane season guide and historical storm impacts, and the table below matches each to the question it answers, with the key figure from the NWS Miami record (NWS Miami).

The Fort Lauderdale seasonal weather patterns guide compares the four seasons at the airport station, explains when the NWS Miami wet season starts and ends and why summers swing between storms and dry spells, covers the dry season and how cold winter nights get, and follows the 2025 and 2026 seasons against normal, from the hot, dry summer of 2026 to the wet September that followed. The Fort Lauderdale hurricane season guide covers the season dates and the August 2026 NOAA outlook, what watches and warnings mean, the city supply kit set against the longer state target, the storm supplies Florida exempts from sales tax, readying a home and running a generator, and the bridge lockdown and flotilla plan for boats. The Fort Lauderdale historical storm impacts guide covers the early storms from 1926 to 1950, Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 and the city's response.

On this hub the NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals are the baseline and the NWS Miami monthly report is the check on how a recent month compared (NOAA NCEI).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the NCEI normals files for station USW00012849, the NWS Miami climate page and September 2026 report, the National Hurricane Center climatology and the Alert FTL and Broward hurricane pages.