SILVER SPRINGS, FLORIDA · FEBRUARY · THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals give February an average high of 73.3°F, an average low of 52.0°F and 2.08 inches of rain, the lightest total of the three winter months around it. That is a month you can spend outdoors from breakfast to dusk without negotiating with the heat, on a spring whose water pays no attention to the calendar at all.
What February does not hand you is a swim. Florida’s own facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area at Silver Springs State Park, in this month or any other, so the day here is boardwalk, paddling trail and platforms. If the plan was to get in the water with something large and gray, start instead with our manatee guide.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · SILVER SPRINGS · FEBRUARY
February buys you a 73.3°F afternoon, four wet days and eleven hours of light on a spring that never changes temperature, and it buys nobody a swim: the state lists no designated swimming area here.
NOAA 1991-2020 NORMALS · STATION 27 MILES AWAY · NO SWIMMING AREA LISTED
Go for: 4,775 feet of boardwalk at shirtsleeve temperatures, 6.3 miles of paddling trail, and a parking lot that does its worst on summer Saturdays.
Think twice before: planning a swim day, and before assuming a fee: we could not read an entrance price or an opening hour and quote neither.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, Leesburg Muni AP · Flow: USGS gauge 02239500 · Facilities: Florida DEP 2024 inventory
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain days73.3°F by day, 52.0°F at night, four wet days
- What to wear at 7 a.m. and at 2 p.m.The 21-degree February day
- How busy the park gets in February1,686 parking spaces and what we could not price
- Things to do in Silver Springs in FebruaryBoardwalk, paddling trail, cabins, platforms
- A two-day plan built on February lightSunrise 7:05 a.m., sunset 6:18 p.m.
- February vs January and MarchHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is February a good month to visit?Who should come, who should wait for March
- Silver Springs in JanuaryThe month before, at 69.9°F
Every figure here that carries a temperature comes from one thermometer: NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals for Leesburg Muni AP, roughly 27 miles from the vent. Money is a different story. We could not read an entrance fee or an opening hour for the park, since floridastateparks.org answers automated reads with a 403, so we quote no price at all.
Silver Springs weather in February: average highs, lows and rain days
| February normal | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 73.3°F |
| Average low | 52.0°F |
| Precipitation | 2.08 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.0 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 0.6 |
| Nights at 32°F or below | 0.5 |
Those normals run 1991 through 2020 and come from a real instrument read by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information: average high 73.3°F, average low 52.0°F, 2.08 inches of precipitation across the month. The station is Leesburg Muni AP, about 27 miles from the spring, and what it measures is the air. The water leaving the vent has no season, so no station anywhere tells you about it.
Four days in an average February collect at least 0.10 inch of rain. That is measurable rain on roughly one day in seven, and most of those days still hold a dry morning. An inch or more falls on 0.6 day, so a genuine soaking shows up in about three Februaries out of five. Twenty-four days of the month record nothing worth an umbrella.
Between 52.0°F at dawn and 73.3°F in mid-afternoon sit 21.3 degrees, and a February day walks the whole distance. The practical consequence is a daypack with room in it: whatever keeps you warm on the first boardwalk loop has to ride on your back from about eleven onward, along with the water you did not think you would need at 73 degrees.
On February 15 the sun clears the horizon at 7:05 a.m. and sets at 6:18 p.m. local time, 11 hours and 13 minutes apart. Light fades off the water before six, which is early enough that a late lunch can cost you the last platform stop. Plan the day backward from 6:18 p.m. and it holds together.
How warm is Silver Springs in February? Average temperatures and what to wear
The two ends of an average February day are 73.3°F and 52.0°F, 21.3 degrees apart. March runs exactly the same spread, 21.3 degrees, with both ends four degrees higher at 77.3°F and 56.0°F. February therefore feels like March with the volume turned down one notch rather than a different kind of month.
At 7:05 a.m. that means a long-sleeve layer and a light jacket, and closed shoes on boardwalk planks that hold the night’s cold. By two in the afternoon the jacket is dead weight and short sleeves are the answer. Under the tree canopy the air stays behind the open parking lot by a noticeable margin, so the layer comes off later in shade than you expect.
Frost is rare but real: 0.5 nights in an average February drop to 32°F or below, meaning roughly one February in two records a single freezing night. On that morning the air and the water are at their furthest apart, because the spring keeps delivering the same temperature it delivers in August, and nothing about the date changes it.
How busy is Silver Springs in February? Crowds, parking and costs
February falls inside Florida’s dry season, November through April, which is a fact of calendar rather than a fact of price. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for this corner of the state, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. Our statewide season guide sets out how the dry months behave across Florida.
Booking lead time is the same blank: we verified no availability data, so we give no number of weeks. The capacity that is documented is the lot. Florida’s 2024 facilities inventory counts 1,686 parking spaces at Silver Springs State Park, and the state describes that number as what decides a summer Saturday: when it fills, the gate closes. In February the squeeze is limited to warm weekend middays, and arriving before ten settles it.
We could not verify the county lodging-tax rate, so we give no percentage. Whatever lands on a room in the area comes off the booking page, not off our arithmetic. For the wider picture of what a Florida week costs, our trip-cost guide does the stacking.
One upgrade genuinely changes February: sleeping inside the gate. The inventory lists 10 cabins at the park. We could not read a nightly rate for them, so treat the phone as part of the booking. A cabin puts you on the boardwalk at 7:05 a.m. with no drive in front of it, on the one morning of the year that might be near freezing.
Things to do in Silver Springs in February
February gives you the long outdoor day that Florida summer rations. Twenty-four of the month’s days record no measurable rain, the afternoon tops out at 73.3°F, and the parking pressure the state itself flags as a summer problem mostly stays a summer problem. You can walk boardwalk at midday in February, which is not a sentence anyone writes about July here.
Silver Springs State Park is the whole show, and Florida’s 2024 Recreational Facilities Inventory counts what it holds: 4,775 feet of boardwalk, 5 observation platforms, 6.3 miles of paddling trail, 10 cabins and those 1,686 spaces. At the vent, USGS gauge 02239500 read 264 cubic feet per second on September 11, 2026, a single instantaneous measurement. That volume is why the water is clear: it is replaced faster than it can cloud.
The vent’s temperature does not move between February and July, while the air around it swings 21.3 degrees in a single day, and that gap is what the season actually is here. Two cautions go with it. The same inventory reads two ways on canoe and kayak launches, three in one line and none in another, so call before you arrive towing a boat. And we could not read any manatee count for Silver Springs, because the state wildlife agency’s manatee pages render client-side, so we promise no animals.
Calling anything free would need a price list, and we could not read one. Ask the park for the February gate price and hours before you set an alarm. The daylight, at least, is fixed and costs nothing to use: 11 hours and 13 minutes of it on the 15th.
Silver Springs in February: a two-day itinerary
Day one starts at the gate for the 7:05 a.m. sunrise, jacket on, air near 52°F. Give the first two hours to the 4,775 feet of boardwalk and the 5 observation platforms while the lot is empty. Late morning, take the paddling trail, all 6.3 miles of it if the arms hold. Eat between one and two, when the day reaches 73.3°F, then walk the trails and be standing on a platform by 5:30 p.m.
Day two reverses it: water first at nine, boardwalk in the warm afternoon, and time left for Ocala or a drive south. If the forecast turns, only the inch-plus day cancels anything outright, and February records 0.6 of those. Lighter rain costs an hour under cover, and our statewide list has the indoor fallbacks within driving range.
Silver Springs in February vs January and March
| Month | Average high | Average low | Precipitation | Days with 0.10 in or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69.9°F | 48.9°F | 2.51 in | 3.9 |
| February | 73.3°F | 52.0°F | 2.08 in | 4.0 |
| March | 77.3°F | 56.0°F | 3.22 in | 3.8 |
January runs 69.9°F by day and 48.9°F at night, February 73.3 and 52.0, March 77.3 and 56.0: a climb of three to four degrees a month at both ends, from the same NOAA station. The count of wet days barely moves across the three, at 3.9, 4.0 and 3.8. The depth does move, from 2.51 inches to 2.08 and then up to 3.22. The spring holds one temperature through all three, and we carry no figure for what that temperature is.
Shift four weeks forward and you gain 4.0 degrees on the afternoon and 4.0 on the night, for 1.14 inches more rain and the arrival of Florida’s spring-break weeks. Shift four weeks back and January costs you 3.4 degrees at midday while adding 0.43 inch of rain. February sits at the point where the afternoons have warmed and the water has not yet started falling out of the sky.
Is February a good time to visit Silver Springs?
Yes if you came to walk, paddle and look: 73.3°F afternoons, four wet days out of 28, and a lot that rarely reaches its 1,686-space limit make this one of the easiest months to plan. No if you came to swim, because the state’s inventory shows no designated swimming area at the park, and no February weather changes that.
If the answer is no because 52.0°F mornings sound bleak, March is the fix: four degrees warmer at both ends of the day, with the same 21.3-degree spread. The bill is 3.22 inches of rain against February’s 2.08, and school-break crowds statewide. Those trade-offs are laid out month by month in our Florida timing guide.
Of the three winter months, February alone combines under 2.1 inches of rain with an afternoon above 73°F.
The last word
The decision worth making is the alarm clock: at the gate for 7:05 a.m., jacket on, boardwalk done before the lot has a conversation with anybody. One more thing to know while you are standing there. Florida law reserves a category called Outstanding Florida Springs, under Statutes 373.802(5), for every historic first-magnitude spring the Florida Geological Survey recognizes, plus six more written into the statute by name. Call the park for the February gate price, since we could not read one.
Sources & data for this guide
- February, January and March normals, rain days and freeze nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012819, Leesburg Muni AP, FL US · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise 7:05 a.m. and sunset 6:18 p.m. on February 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- 264 cubic feet per second at the vent · U.S. Geological Survey, National Water Information System, station 02239500, single instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Boardwalk, platforms, paddling trail, cabins and 1,686 parking spaces · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Outstanding Florida Springs definition · Florida Statutes 373.802(5), leg.state.fl.us · checked Sep 24, 2026
- What we could not read, and why: floridastateparks.org returns a 403 to automated reads, so we carry no entrance fee and no opening hour; the state wildlife agency’s manatee pages render client-side, so we carry no manatee count. The 2024 inventory also reads two ways on canoe and kayak launches at this park, three in one line and none in another, and we serve both readings rather than pick one.