FLORIDA · GINNIE SPRINGS · THE 12-MONTH VERDICT
The water at Ginnie Springs comes out of the ground at the same temperature in January as it does in July. That one property reorders the usual Florida question. The air above it does have a season, and a pronounced one: 67.1°F afternoons in January, 91.1°F in July, and a June that averages 7.56 inches of rain on its own. What you are choosing between is not the swim. It is the walk back to the car, the afternoon on the tube, and the night in the tent.
So the year sorts by air, daylight and the school calendar. The normals below are the 1991-2020 set published by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, and they will never tell you what your Saturday does. They will tell you which weekend is worth the drive, how many nights to book, and which month needs a rain plan written before you leave.
THE YEAR AT A GLANCE · GINNIE SPRINGS
Go in April: 81.5°F afternoons, 2.74 inches of rain across the month, 3.8 days wet enough to notice, and water identical to July’s.
BEST MONTH: APRIL · WETTEST: JUNE, 7.56 IN · QUIETEST: MID-NOVEMBER TO FEBRUARY · 1 TO 2 NIGHTS
Go for: a spring that ignores the season, April and October afternoons in the low 80s, and a driest month, November, averaging 1.79 inches over 3.0 wet days.
Think twice before: booking June or July nights outdoors: 11.0 and 10.5 days a month at 0.10 inch or more, with lows that stop falling below 69.5°F.
Air normals 1991-2020 · NOAA NCEI, Gainesville Regional AP · daylight from sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Monthly highs, lows and rainfallThe twelve-month table
- The single best month to bookApril, 81.5°F and 3.8 wet days
- How hot July and August get91.1°F days, 72.0°F nights
- The quietest weeks of the yearMid-November through February
- Which month to skipJune, 7.56 inches over 11.0 days
- Shoulder season: March, April, October, NovemberWhat the shoulder costs in daylight
Practically, this is a one-night or two-night destination reached by car, and the airport option, Gainesville Regional, sits about 78 km (48 miles) away. Book the dates around the air and the daylight rather than around the water, because the water is the one variable that will be the same whichever weekend you pick.
Ginnie Springs weather month by month: highs, lows and rainfall
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain | Days ≥ 0.10 in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67.1°F | 42.6°F | 3.29 in | 5.2 |
| February | 70.9°F | 45.9°F | 2.67 in | 4.1 |
| March | 75.8°F | 49.7°F | 3.49 in | 5.3 |
| April | 81.5°F | 55.5°F | 2.74 in | 3.8 |
| May | 87.4°F | 62.6°F | 3.08 in | 4.5 |
| June | 90.3°F | 69.5°F | 7.56 in | 11.0 |
| July | 91.1°F | 71.6°F | 6.68 in | 10.5 |
| August | 90.5°F | 72.0°F | 6.40 in | 10.4 |
| September | 88.1°F | 69.4°F | 5.05 in | 6.9 |
| October | 82.1°F | 60.6°F | 2.68 in | 4.0 |
| November | 74.7°F | 50.6°F | 1.79 in | 3.0 |
| December | 69.3°F | 45.2°F | 2.88 in | 4.5 |
Two seasons, and the line between them is drawn by rain rather than heat. From November through May, every month stays under 3.5 inches and under 5.5 wet days. June, July and August each collect more than 6 inches across 10 or 11 days at 0.10 inch or more, and September is still at 5.05 inches. The temperature curve climbs and falls smoothly. The rain curve has a cliff at the start of June.
May into June is where the year tips: highs move only 2.9 degrees, from 87.4°F to 90.3°F, while rainfall jumps from 3.08 inches to 7.56 and wet days from 4.5 to 11.0. The return trip is September into October, and it is the bigger relief of the two: 6.0 degrees off the high, 2.37 inches off the rain, and wet days down from 6.9 to 4.0.
June is the hardest month for anyone whose plan happens above the surface, with 11.0 days at 0.10 inch or more and 2.1 days at an inch or more falling on a campground, a tube run and a parking lot. A diver barely registers it. January is hard in the opposite direction, with 6.2 nights at or below 32°F at the station, a number that matters to a tent and not at all to a swim.
Every figure here was measured at Gainesville Regional Airport, about 78 km (48 miles) from the spring, in the 1991-2020 normals from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. Those readings describe AIR over a runway, not water in the run. The wet-day counts use the American thresholds, 0.10 inch and 1 inch. As for the spring, it holds one temperature all year: our source set is a weather station and not a water gauge, so we quote no figure for it.
When is the best time to visit Ginnie Springs?
April. Average high 81.5°F, average low 55.5°F, 2.74 inches of rain spread over 3.8 days at 0.10 inch or more, and 12 hours 57 minutes of daylight on the 15th, with the sun up at 7:01 a.m. and down at 7:59 p.m. That is warm enough for spring water to read as relief instead of shock, and dry enough that a two-night booking has a genuine chance at two usable afternoons.
March runs 5.7 degrees cooler by day, carries 0.75 inch more rain across 5.3 wet days, and still averages 1.2 nights at or below freezing. May goes 5.9 degrees the other way, to 87.4°F, and adds 7.1 degrees to the nights, 62.6°F against April’s 55.5°F. April is the narrow band where the afternoon is hot enough to want the water and the month is not yet paying June’s rain bill.
Where April sits in the wider state year, the dry season it closes and the spring-break weeks inside it, is laid out in Florida’s 12-month verdict. For stitching the spring into a longer drive across north Florida, see the road-trip guide.
How hot does Ginnie Springs get in summer?
July is the peak on paper at 91.1°F, with June at 90.3°F and August at 90.5°F behind it. The nights decide whether you camp: lows average 69.5°F in June, 71.6°F in July and 72.0°F in August, so the tent never gets the cool hour that April’s 55.5°F hands it. Daylight tops out on June 15 at 14 hours 06 minutes, sunrise 6:28 a.m., sunset 8:34 p.m., leaving a long evening on the water.
Our source set carries no humidity reading and no heat index, so 91.1°F in the table is plain air temperature and nothing more. North Florida in July is not dry, and what a July afternoon feels like is a number we cannot put here rather than one that does not exist. Read the summer highs as the floor of the discomfort, and remember that the water under them does not follow the air by a single degree.
When is Ginnie Springs quietest?
Mid-November through February is the quiet stretch, and it is a calendar fact: school is in session, tube season is over, and the air is too cool to dry off in. November averages 74.7°F by day, December 69.3°F, and January bottoms out at 67.1°F with 42.6°F nights and 6.2 of them at or below freezing. February climbs back to 70.9°F.
November also averages 1.79 inches of rain across 3.0 wet days, the driest and steadiest month of the twelve, and the water you came for is the water July gets. That combination buys a short trip with almost nothing to re-attempt: one night, a morning in the run, a dry drive home. Families working around term dates will find the same logic laid out in our Florida-with-kids guide.
The loss is the afternoon. December 15 gives 10 hours 17 minutes of daylight, sunrise 7:17 a.m. and sunset 5:34 p.m., against 14 hours 06 minutes on June 15. January adds those 6.2 freezing nights and a 42.6°F average low, which turns camping into a gear decision and the minute after the swim into the hardest part of the day. Tubing the river in 67.1°F January air is a different proposition from tubing it in May’s 87.4°F.
Which month should you avoid at Ginnie Springs?
June, and specifically June for campers, tubers and anyone with a two-day window. Its 7.56 inches is more than four times November’s 1.79, spread over 11.0 days at 0.10 inch or more and 2.1 days at an inch or more, matching August for the year’s highest count of heavy days. Divers lose the least to it, since that rain lands on a surface they spend the day beneath.
What June holds over every other month is light: 14 hours 06 minutes on the 15th, sun up at 6:28 a.m. and down at 8:34 p.m., nearly four hours more than December 15 gives. It also lines up with the start of school holidays, and a 90.3°F afternoon is the precise condition in which a spring that never warms up pays for the drive.
Is the shoulder season worth it at Ginnie Springs?
The shoulder months here are March, April, October and November. April sits 9.6 degrees below July’s 91.1°F and carries 4.82 inches less rain than June. October sits 8.4 degrees below August’s 90.5°F with 3.72 inches less rain. November drops 15.8 degrees below August and 4.61 inches below it, which is the widest gap on the table.
Dry afternoons in series are what the shoulder gives and the summer cannot. April’s 3.8 wet days and October’s 4.0 mean a two-night stay stands a good chance of coming out clean, where July’s 10.5 wet days put rain on roughly one day in three. Nights come back too: 55.5°F in April and 60.6°F in October, against 71.6°F in July, which is the difference between sleeping outside and enduring it.
Daylight is the bill. October 15 runs 11 hours 29 minutes, sunrise 7:31 a.m. and sunset 7:00 p.m., 2 hours 37 minutes shorter than June 15. April 15 keeps 12 hours 57 minutes and holds the sun until 7:59 p.m., still 1 hour 09 minutes short of midsummer. March adds its own tax: 5.3 wet days, the highest count between October and May, plus 1.2 nights at or below freezing.
Take April with one weekend to spend and the best odds of two usable afternoons. Take October for the same daytime air with warmer nights, 60.6°F against 55.5°F, accepting about an hour and a half less daylight than April. Leave March for trips whose dates are already fixed, because 5.3 wet days and a freezing night or two is a lot of variance to absorb in 48 hours.
The last word
Book April, take two nights, and stop refreshing the forecast on behalf of the water. If April is gone, February is the counter-pick: 2.67 inches over 4.1 wet days, second only to November for dryness, with 70.9°F afternoons and 11 hours 11 minutes of daylight on the 15th, the sun setting at 6:20 p.m. It also averages 2.8 freezing nights, so pack the sleeping bag for the campsite and not for the swim.
Sources & data for this guide
- Monthly air normals 1991-2020, all twelve months · NOAA NCEI, station USW00012816, Gainesville Regional AP, FL US · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Wet-day counts at the 0.10 inch and 1 inch thresholds · NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Nights at or below 32°F (November, December, January, February, March) · NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset on the 15th of each month, converted from UTC to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 12, 2026
- The station sits about 78 km (48 miles) from the spring and measures air, not water. We hold no water-temperature reading, no humidity or heat-index series and no attendance figures for the site: the quiet-season call is editorial, based on the school calendar.