[at-l] Florida Climate

[KellyGoVols at aol.com (KellyGoVols@xxxxxxx)]

This is from the Florida State University Florida Climate Center:

The southern most portion of the state is generally designated as belonging 
to the tropical savanna region, a climate that it shares with most of the 
Caribbean islands. Sometimes also called the wet and dry tropics, tropical savanna 
precipitation is highly concentrated in the warmer months. 

Mean average temperatures during Florida?s coldest month (January) range from 
the lower 50s in the north to the high 60s in the south. In the hottest month 
(usually July but in places August) it is almost the same throughout the 
entire state, between 81oF and 83oF. Although the length of daylight in Florida 
during most of the year does not differ greatly from states in the north, every 
day of the year the sun reaches Florida at a higher angle than farther north, 
and consequently its power to heat is greater. For example, in New York City 
during January the rays of the sun reach a maximum angle during the day of 
about 26 degrees above the horizon, while in Miami the angle is about 40 degrees.? 
In mid-summer the sun?s rays at their highest are striking New York at about 
a 65 degree angle, while in Miami the sun is almost directly overhead.

Florida?s summer high temperatures can be extremely enervating, although in 
the last half-century air conditioning has made life more bearable. Although in 
an average year Florida experiences far fewer days when temperatures reach 
above 100oF than in most other states, because Florida is among the wettest in 
the nation, and its atmosphere is so humid, its summers are among the most 
uncomfortable. When humidity is high, evaporation of perspiration from the skin is 
inhibited, and one feels hotter than if humidity were lower. In Florida, 
during the warmest time of the day relative humidity throughout the state rises 
into the 50s and 60s. During the cooler hours it is higher, in the 70s and 80s. 
The heat index, sometimes called the sensible temperature, takes into account 
both relative humidity and actual temperature. During the height of the 
summer, when most of the time the temperature is in the low 90s in mid-afternoon, it 
feels about 10oF higher than the actual temperature. Fortunately the 
difference between the actual and sensible temperature declines rapidly with a drop in 
the actual temperature and is negligible below 80oF. Consequently, except in 
the summer, humidity is not a major inconvenience.? Compared to the northern 
states, during the year Florida has a far greater number of days where the 
maximum temperature falls within the comfort range of between 70oF and 85oF.In the 
northern part of the state it is between 125 and 150 days, and it rises above 
200 days in the Tampa Bay area and along the Atlantic Coast from Melbourne 
south. In the interior of the peninsula it is between 175 and 200 days.

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