Florida Climate Zones, North to South

Florida runs from a far north averaging more than 20 freezing nights a year to a south averaging none, with hot, humid summers and mild winters statewide (NOAA NCEI and NCICS Florida State Climate Summary).

The NOAA state climate summary puts the cause in two places: Florida sits at subtropical latitudes beside the warm Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic, and the Bermuda High, a semipermanent high pressure system off the Atlantic coast, pulls moisture over the state in summer, producing afternoon and evening thunderstorms (Florida State Climate Summary). Under the 1991 to 2020 normals, January average temperatures run from the lower 50s in the northern part of the state to the upper 60s in the south, while July averages sit in the low 80s throughout (Florida State Climate Summary).

The same summary gives a statewide average annual precipitation of 53.7 inches for 1895 to 2020, with more rain in June through September (Florida State Climate Summary). Hurricane force winds reach some part of Florida an average of 3 times every 5 years, and the summary calls hurricanes and intense coastal storms the most serious weather threats (Florida State Climate Summary). The north to south difference is a winter story far more than a summer one, which the station normals in the next section show directly.

At seven Florida airport stations the January normal low climbs from 40.5 degrees at Tallahassee to 65.5 degrees at Key West, while every July normal high sits between 90.2 and 92.1 degrees.

The Florida figures below are NCEI 1991 to 2020 monthly normals, read through the ACIS data service and linked by station.

Two patterns stand out in the table. The Panhandle stations keep more rain in the cool months: Pensacola's November normal is 4.42 inches and its December normal 5.40 inches, against 1.79 and 2.48 inches at Orlando (Pensacola normals; Orlando normals). In the south the wet months are the summer and early fall ones: Miami's June normal is 10.51 inches and its September normal 10.22 inches (Miami normals). Key West is the drier outlier, with a June normal of 4.23 inches and its wettest normal month in September at 7.24 inches (Key West normals).

Tallahassee posts a lower January normal low than Pensacola or Jacksonville, at 40.5 degrees (Tallahassee normals). Tampa's August normal of 9.03 inches is the wettest month on its record of normals, while its November normal is 1.40 inches (Tampa normals).

In east central Florida the wet season starts in late May and the dry season in mid October, with Orlando medians of May 24 and October 15 (NWS Melbourne wet and dry season study).

That NWS Melbourne study of Central Florida set the Daytona Beach wet season start at May 27, gave the same October 15 dry season date for both stations, and measured an average wet season of 146 days at Orlando and 143 days at Daytona Beach (NWS Melbourne wet and dry season study). The 2002 study ties the Orlando start to minimum temperatures in the 67 to 70 degree range, which usually arrive a few days before showers and storms become frequent (NWS Melbourne wet and dry season study).

The Keys run on a slightly different calendar. The NWS Key West office describes December through April as the dry season, bringing just under 25 percent of the annual rainfall, and June through October as the wet season, with about 65 percent, leaving May and November as transition months (NWS Key West Florida Keys climate). The same office credits the Gulf Stream in the Straits of Florida and the Gulf to the west for a notably mild tropical maritime climate in the island chain (NWS Key West climate).

Freezing nights average more than 20 a year in the far north of Florida and fall to 0 in the south under the 1991 to 2020 record (Florida State Climate Summary).

The NOAA state summary counts a long term statewide average of 5.8 freezing nights a year for 1900 to 2020 and notes that the number has generally run below average since 1990 (Florida State Climate Summary). Miami International Airport has dropped below freezing only 7 times in 80 years of records, and not once since 1989 (Florida State Climate Summary). In the Keys, the NWS Key West office reports no record of frost, ice, sleet or snow at Key West, though ice has been reported in the Upper Keys (NWS Key West climate).

Freezes have reshaped where Florida farms. The summary says several strong freezes since the beginning of the 19th century pushed citrus, winter vegetables and sugarcane from North Florida into South Florida, and that a cold outbreak of more than a week in January 2010 cost the citrus industry more than $200 million (Florida State Climate Summary).

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map sorts places by their average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, in 10 degree F zones and 5 degree F half zones, and its ZIP code search gives the zone for any Florida address (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map).

The current edition, which includes a Florida state map, is the 2023 map, built on 1991 to 2020 data, which USDA says aligns with the period climatologists use for baseline climate normals (USDA PHZM Map Creation). USDA describes the 2023 map as generally about one quarter zone warmer than the 2012 map across much of the country, partly because of the newer averaging period and partly because of added data and better interpolation, and it warns that zone changes are not reliable evidence for or against global warming (USDA PHZM Map Creation).

A Florida state map is offered as a PNG at 150 or 300 dpi on the USDA downloads page (USDA PHZM Map Downloads). One point worth checking before repeating a zone label: the USDA Map Creation page states that zones 12 and 13, for average extreme minimums above 50 and 60 degrees F, appear only on the maps for Hawaii and Puerto Rico (USDA PHZM Map Creation). The map also notes that cities and places near large unfrozen water can land in a warmer zone than the countryside around them (USDA PHZM Map Creation).

The NWS Melbourne office issued its 2026 to 2027 Central Florida dry season outlook on September 30, 2026, covering what it defines as Central Florida, Florida climate divisions 3 and 4 (NWS Melbourne Dry Season Forecast).

That Central Florida outlook covers November 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027 in two periods, November to January and February to April, rests on NWS Melbourne research into the El Nino Southern Oscillation that dates to early 1997, and lists its next issue for January 2027 (NWS Melbourne Dry Season Forecast). The office headline for the season reads: increased potential for well above normal rainfall and severe weather this upcoming dry season (NWS Melbourne). The office presents it as a supplement to the official Climate Prediction Center outlooks, not a replacement (NWS Melbourne Dry Season Forecast).

Two Koppen labels, Cfa and Aw, have NOAA definitions. NOAA JetStream defines humid subtropical (Cfa) as mild with no dry season and a hot summer, warmest months above 72 degrees F and coldest month under 64 degrees F, and equatorial savanna (Aw) as having a winter dry season, more than two months under 2.36 inches, and every monthly average above 64 degrees F (NOAA JetStream Koppen Geiger subdivisions). The NOAA page gives the definitions only and does not assign Florida cities to either class.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by pulling the seven station normals from ACIS, rereading the NOAA state climate summary, the NWS Key West and NWS Melbourne pages and the USDA hardiness map pages.