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ASK AMY #7 – What and When is the Central Florida Dry Season?

Many people who live in Central Florida don’t talk about the four seasons much: winter, spring, summer, and fall. Since we don’t experience true “seasonal” weather, like snow in the winter and changing leaves in the fall, we don’t usually even recognize the change of seasons like others do.

We do, however, talk a lot about the rainy season and the dry season. The rainy season runs approximately five months, from mid-May until mid-October. The other 7 months are known as the dry season, and most people say this is the reason they live in Florida. From mid-October to mid-May, the temperatures cool, the humidity drops, and the daily afternoon storms end.

Blue sky over Fun Spot in Orlando
Blue sky over Fun Spot in Orlando

The biggest reason for the changing weather pattern is that cold fronts actually make it all the way through Florida. Cool air doesn’t get a strong push south during the summer months. Once air gets really cold at the North Pole, it pushes toward the equator, sending cooler, drier air into Florida. Central Florida still gets rain during the dry season, but the rain comes almost entirely from passing fronts rather than from afternoon sea breeze storms.

There isn’t a definitive start date or time for the dry season, but there are a few signals that alert us that the dry season is beginning:

  1. Daily sea breeze storms end
  2. A strong cold front brings cool, dry air (usually around October 15)
  3. Temperatures dip below 60°
  4. Rain comes almost entirely from passing fronts

Forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Florida make the official “call” of when the dry season has begun for Central Florida. They usually wait a few days, or sometimes weeks, after they “think” the season has started before determining the official start date for that year.

On average, the dry season begins for Orlando and Daytona Beach on October 15, but it has started as early as September 27 (in Orlando in 2006) and as late as November 13 (in Daytona Beach in 1946).

We don’t often get to bundle up in the wintertime in Florida. The average low goes from the 60s in October to 49 in January. But that’s okay with me. I think the five months of sweltering heat and afternoon storms makes the dry season worth the wait!

AJ dreams of winter in It Never, Ever Snows in Florida
AJ dreams of winter in It Never, Ever Snows in Florida

 

Filed Under: Ask Amy

Comments

  1. Susan says

    March 7, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    Why have the daily rains all but stopped in Central Florida? Back in the 60’s and 70’s there was rain everyday during the wet season.

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About Amy

About Amy

Amy Sweezey is an award-winning Broadcast Meteorologist, children's book author, and mom of 3. It Never, Ever Snows In Florida is Amy’s first fiction story which tells of AJ, who lives in Florida and has never seen snow. Her second nonfiction book, Let’s Talk Weather, TV Forecasting: Behind the Scenes, explains the science behind the forecast and the tools Amy uses for predicting weather changes.

Amy lives in Central Florida with her family.

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