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The climate has always been Florida's most important natural resources, which is reflected in its official nickname, the "Sunshine State." Florida is famous for it's generally warm climate. The climate of Florida is tempered somewhat by the fact that no part of the state is very distant from the ocean. North of lake Okeechobee, the prevalent climate is humid subtropical climate, while south of the lake has a true tropical climate. The seasons in Florida are determined more by precipitation than by temperature, with the hot, wet springs and summers making up the wet season, and mild to cool, and the relatively dry winters and autumns, making the dry season. Fall foliage is a common sight in Central and North Florida starting around late November, and into Winter. High temperatures in the state seldom exceed 100° F with much of Florida commonly seeing a high summer temperature of 90s °F. There is a defined rainy season from June through September, which are the months most at risk of land falling tropical storms or hurricanes and afternoon thunderstorms. Between October and May, fronts regularly sweep through the state which keeps conditions dry, particularly over the peninsula. Towards the end of the dry season in the spring, brush fires become common statewide.
Lightning-
Florida receives the highest density of lightning strikes within the
United States. The corridor from Tampa Bay, Florida to Titusville,
Florida is referred to as "lightning alley", since this area has the
highest amount of lightning per year in the United S Several deaths
per year are blamed on lightning, making lightning one of the deadliest
weather-related phenomenon in the state. On average, 10 people die each
year from lightning. Statistics show that teenage boys are most
vulnerable. People in their 30's are the next most likely victims,
followed by those in their 20's. July is the worst month for lightning
deaths in our state. Summer brings thunderstorms. In July, kids are not
usually in school at all. They are more likely to be outside when a
thunderstorm approaches. The Fourth-of-July holiday weekend is
particularly dangerous. The air in a lightning strike is heated to
50,000 degrees F. It is this rapid heating of the air that produces the
shock wave that results in thunder. A ground stroke can produce
somewhere between 100 million to a 1 billion volts of electricity. The
length of an average cloud-to-ground channel can range from 2 to 10
miles. You can tell how far away a lightning stroke is by counting the
seconds between seeing the lightning flash and hearing the thunder:
Five (5) seconds approximates one (1) mile of distance. If you see a
flash and instantly hear the thunder, the lightning stroke was very
close and you should take shelter immediately!
Florida
Precipitation- Florida has the highest average
precipitation of any state, in large part because afternoon
thunderstorms are common in most of the state from late spring until
early autumn. A fair day may be interrupted with a storm, only to return
to sunshine an hour or so later. These thunderstorms, caused by overland
collisions of moist masses of air from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Ocean, pop up in the early afternoon and can bring heavy downpours, high
winds, and sometimes tornadoes.
Hail sometimes accompanies the most severe thunderstorms. Snow is a rare
occurrence in Florida. The most widespread snowfall in Florida history
occurred on January 19, 1977, when snow fell over much of the state, as
far south as Homestead. Snow flurries fell on Miami Beach for the only
time in recorded history. A hard freeze in 2003 brought "ocean-effect"
snow flurries to the Atlantic coast as far south as Cape Canaveral.
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Florida Waterspouts- A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water. While it is often weaker than most of its land counterparts, stronger versions do occur. Contrary to popular belief that waterspouts suck up water, the water seen in the main funnel cloud is actually water droplets formed by condensation. Waterspouts have a five-part life cycle: formation of a dark spot on the water surface, spiral pattern on the water surface, formation of a spray ring, development of the visible condensation funnel, and ultimately decay. Waterspouts probably occur more frequently in the Florida Keys than anywhere in the world. Waters around the Keys, especially from Marathon past Key West on westward to the Dry Tortugas, see 400 or 500 waterspouts a year. After the Florida Keys, the next most active U.S. waterspout area is the southeast Florida Coast from around Stuart south to Homestead. Tampa Bay has the greatest number of damaging waterspouts, probably because the shores of the Bay are so built up.
For further information on Florida, you may want to purchase a book from our Florida Nature Library. Don't miss our "Nature Videos" slideshow set to music!