Which part of Florida has the best climate year round?
Understanding Climates
In the 20th Century, the climatologist Wladimir Koppen developed the modern climate classification, and to this day, it is the most widely used system to categories the various climates around the world. The Koppen system has six major climatic types, which are subdivided into sub-categories based on the annual and monthly averages of temperature and precipitation.
Florida has officially two main climate classification with Tropical and Moist Subtropical Mid-Latitude climates. The Moist Subtropical Mid-Latitude types are typically found between 30 to 50 degrees of latitude while the Tropical types are typically found from the equator to about 15 to 25 degrees.
As the map created by the Oregon State University illustrates, Florida has four Koppen climate type with tropical rainforest (AF), tropical monsoon (AM), tropical savanna (AW), and humid subtropical (CFA).
The main climate type of Florida is the Humid Subtropical (CFA) which is the dominant climate type for State. The Humid Subtropical climate has hot muggy summers with thunderstorms and mild winters with rain associated with mid-latitude cyclones. The other climate types of Florida are the Tropical Rainforest, Monsoon, and Savanna. The annual averages temperature for tropical climate requires an average annual temperature greater 64 degrees. The Tropical Rainforest has rain happening year round. The Tropical Monsoon as a more seasonal aspect to rainfall where there is a brief dryer season with less rain. Finally, the Tropical Savanna has a dry winter season
While the Koppen Climate Classification is useful in providing a general idea of the climate, it is important to drill down to the finer details as climate classification can vary significantly even among the same subcategory. As an illustration New York City and Orlando are both Humid subtropical (CFA) but a passenger traveling from New York City to Orlando in Winter would experience a drastic change in temperature.
Evaluating the best year round climate at ten locations
In order to determine which part of Florida has the best overall climate, we are going to examine rainy days, freezing days, best dew points, ideal temperatures, and days where the temperature above 90 degrees. The following ten popular destinations were selected:
· Daytona Beach
· Fort Myers
· Gainesville
· Jacksonville
· Miami
· Orlando
· Pensacola
· Tallahassee
· Tampa
· Vero Beach
Rainy Days
When we look at the annual average number of rainy days, Tampa and Pensacola have the least amount of rainy days, which makes them the top choice for sunshine lovers.
Pensacola has some of the best beaches in Florida and has less rainy days than most cities in Florida.
Miami has the most rainy days in Florida, but there is nonetheless plenty of sunshine to enjoy going to the beach.
Freezing Days
As we can see from the table, it can freeze in Florida. Tallahassee is by far the coldest place among our ten cities with a whopping 28.5 days of freezing temperature.
Central Florida with Orlando and Tampa rarely gets freezing days with less than two days per year.
Even on the rare occasion that Central Florida experiences freezing days, the temperature usually warm up rapidly so that by lunchtime temperature can be pleasant with sunshine.
For those who do not wish to feel freezing temperature, South Florida with Miami and Fort Myers are best locations to dodge freezing days with less than half days.
Dew Points
Temperatures are obviously one of the main component to determine the best weather. However, temperatures can be deceiving as a high dew point can make 85 degrees feel like 91 degrees. According to NOAA, dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to in order to achieve a relative humidity of 100%. The greater the dew point rises, the greater the amount of moisture in the air. Humidity alone is not a good measure to understand how it will feel outside. As an illustration, 55 degrees with a 55 dew point is 100% humid. 80 degrees with 70 dew point gives us a 72% humidity. In this case, the humidity will feel greater at 72% vs the 100% humidity.
The following Dew Point categories can give us a quick indication on how it is going to feel outside:
The sweet spot for dew point is less than 60 degrees. Any dew point above 71 degrees will feel oppressive and cause you to sweat even when just going on a walk.
Rainbow Springs illustrated above is one of the many springs when Floridian can take refuge from the Florida heat by simply diving in refreshing 72 degrees year-round water.
Tallahassee has by far the most comfortable dew point in Florida. From October through April, Tallahassee enjoy seven months of comfortable dew points. Miami and Fort Myers have a very short comfortable season from December through March.
Ideal Temperatures (66-85)
The exact ideal temperature can vary significantly, so in this case we will use a range for the afternoon high temperature between 66 and 85 degrees.
If we only looked at temperature without considering dew point, Vero Beach would rank number one followed by Daytona Beach. Vero Beach and Daytona both have eight months where the afternoon high are in the ideal temperature range.
By combining the dew points with temperatures, we can calculate the heat index. According to NOAA, the heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature.
As mentioned previously dew points can provide a general idea on how we perceive the humidity outside. In addition, we can combine the dew point and temperature to derive the heat index
The next table combines the dew point and temperature to obtain the heat index. NOAA heat index calculator is a great tool
Once we recalculate the average high temperature with the Dew Point, Vero Beach drops number one to number six. Daytona Beach is the City that enjoy the most ideal afternoon temperature with a total of seven months. Fort Myers August average high of 92 can feel like 105 degrees.
Temperatures above 90 Degrees
Once temperature reaches above 90 degrees, most people will find it uncomfortable outside. According to NOAA, prolonged physical activities when the heat index is above 90 degrees can lead to heat stroke, heat cramps, or heat exhaustion.
Tallassee is the city with least days above 90 degrees with an average 48.6 days.
Conclusion
The one city that has the best climate overall is Daytona Beach with the most pleasant temperatures year around. When it comes to freezing temperatures, Daytona Beach only experiences on average 4.3 days of freezing temperatures, which usually happen overnight to early morning. From October to the middle of May, Daytona Beach enjoys afternoon highs in the ideal temperature range.
Sunrise at Daytona Beach by Amy Bowers
Ranking for best overall Climate
1. Daytona Beach
2. Pensacola
3. Gainesville
4. Jacksonville
5. Tampa
6. Vero Beach
7. Tallahassee
8. Orlando
9. Miami
10. Fort Myers