Madison Blue Spring in December: Weather, Water Temperature and Frost Nights

MADISON BLUE SPRING · DECEMBER · WATER 73.2°F

The coldest part of a December trip to Madison Blue Spring happens in the parking area, not in the water. NOAA’s December normals for this corner of north Florida put the average low at 41.3°F and the average high at 65.0°F. The spring ignores all of it: the USGS gauge at the vent read 73.2°F (22.9°C) on September 11, 2026, and it reads close to that on any date you pick. A spring has no seasons. The air above it does, and in December the difference at dawn runs to nearly 32 degrees.

December takes away the 71.4°F afternoons of November and adds rain: 3.12 inches against 2.47, and 5.0 days with at least a tenth of an inch against 3.6. It gives back a short bright day, 10 hours 14 minutes of it on the 15th, an afternoon that still reaches 65.0°F to dry off in, and a slot inside Florida’s dry season, which runs November through April. Whether that trade works depends on what you came to do in the water, and on how well you pack for a 7:21 am sunrise.

On this page

• December weather at the spring65.0°F days, 41.3°F nights, 3.12 inches
• How warm the water is in December73.2°F at the vent, year-round
• Crowds, fees and booking aheadDry season, and the holiday-week split
• What there is to do in DecemberWhat the state’s 2024 inventory records at the park
• A two-day plan for DecemberWater from 11 to 1, packed up by 4:30
• December against November and January6.4°F warmer in November, 0.71 inch wetter in January
• Is December worth the drive?Yes with thermal gear, no for a float day

One thing to settle before the figures start. Every air figure here comes from NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 monthly normals at Valdosta Regional Airport in Georgia, GHCN station USW00093845, a real thermometer about 27 miles from the spring rather than a grid-cell reanalysis. The water figures come from a gauge at the spring itself, USGS station 02319302. Two instruments, two locations, and only one of them sits over the vent.

Madison Blue Spring weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 normals give December an average high of 65.0°F, an average low of 41.3°F and 3.12 inches of precipitation. The thermometer behind those figures stands at Valdosta Regional Airport, about 27 miles away across the state line, so read them as the regional air rather than a measurement taken at the picnic tables. Nothing in that set describes the spring water, and nothing in it needs to.

Of those 3.12 inches, 5.0 days in an average December collect at least a tenth of an inch, so rain you can feel lands about one day in six and roughly 26 days stay clear of it. The heavy end is small and real. An inch or more falls on 1.3 days in the average December, enough to end a session and turn an afternoon into road miles.

Between 41.3°F and 65.0°F there are 23.7 degrees inside a single day, and you will feel all of them. Pack for two climates in one bag: fleece, beanie and gloves for the first two hours, a shirt for the middle of the afternoon. Then pack for the moment that catches people out, coming out of 73.2°F water into air that has not climbed yet. Two towels, a changing robe or an oversized hoodie, and dry shoes that are not the wet ones.

On December 15 the sun rises at 7:21 am and sets at 5:35 pm, giving 10 hours 14 minutes of daylight. It stays a low sun all day, and the temperature falls quickly once it goes in a month that averages 41.3°F overnight. Work backwards from 5:35 pm: gear packed by 4:30, dry and warm by 4:00, last time in the water around 2:30 while the afternoon is near its 65.0°F best.

How warm is Madison Blue Spring in December?

The gauge at the vent read 73.2°F on September 11, 2026, and it reads close to that every day of the year. That is a single instantaneous reading, not a monthly average of daily maxima, and the distinction matters less here than it would on a coast: the vent does not cycle with the calendar. Set against December’s air, the water runs 8.2 degrees above the month’s average high of 65.0°F and 31.9 degrees above its average low of 41.3°F.

Morning belongs to layers you will take off. At 8 am you want the fleece and the hat; by 2 pm, with the air near 65.0°F, a shirt does the job in the sun. In the water, 73.2°F is cool enough to catch your breath on entry and never cold enough to turn you back. What decides a December session is what you have to stand in afterward, so a hood, a robe and a second towel change more about the day than anything else in the bag.

Frost belongs to a normal December at this latitude. Six nights in an average month fall to 32°F or below, which puts a windshield to scrape and a stiff neoprene suit on the list of things to plan around. Keep wet gear indoors overnight, start the engine early, and treat any pre-sunrise arrival as cold-weather logistics.

How busy is Madison Blue Spring in December? Crowds, prices and the demand peak

December sits inside Florida’s dry season, November through April, and that is a calendar fact rather than a price signal. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for this part of north Florida, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. What the statewide pattern does say is that holiday weeks concentrate demand, and the last ten days of December behave differently from the first twenty wherever you sleep.

That split is what to book around. For a weekday in the first three weeks, a bed within driving distance usually turns up a few days out (est.). For the block between Christmas and New Year, treat north Florida like the rest of the state and book four to six weeks ahead (est.), especially if you want two nights in one place instead of a drive each morning. Getting here is a drive whichever airport you fly into; our flights guide sorts those, and where to stay covers the beds.

We could not verify the county lodging-tax rate, so we give no percentage. The park’s own figures came up short as well: floridastateparks.org returned a 403 to our automated reads on September 11, 2026, so we publish no entrance fee and no opening hours. Fees in Florida vary park by park and season by season, and a price copied from another spring would not transfer. Check the official park page the day before you drive.

One purchase changes December here more than any other, and it is thermal. A hooded wetsuit against swim trunks is the difference between a 73.2°F immersion you enjoy and one you cut short because a 41.3°F morning is waiting at the exit. The rest of the list is small: a thermos, a second towel, a scraper for those six frost nights. Money spent on restaurants moves this month far less than money spent on neoprene, which is not how a Florida budget usually works.

Things to do in Madison Blue Spring in December

December hands you a 65.0°F afternoon to stand around in after you get out, and at this site that is the whole difference. January’s afternoon average is 62.8°F, and the same 73.2°F water feels different when the air you climb back into has lost two more degrees. November is warmer again at 71.4°F, though it flattens the contrast: its average high sits within 1.8 degrees of the water, against 8.2 degrees in December.

Madison Blue Spring State Park is the trip. Florida Statutes 373.802(5) defines a protected class called Outstanding Florida Springs, covering every historic first-magnitude spring as determined by the Florida Geological Survey plus six named individually in the statute; we could not confirm from a primary source which of those categories applies here, so take the law as context rather than as a label for this vent. Florida DEP’s 2024 recreational facilities inventory records no designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch at the park.

The water does not move with the calendar. The air does, and over three months it moves a great deal: 71.4°F in November, 65.0°F in December, 62.8°F in January, against a vent holding near 73.2°F throughout. On a morning that starts at 32°F, that gap is visible from the bank before you have put a foot in.

What is free in December we cannot tell you, because the state parks site refused our automated reads on September 11, 2026 and we have no fee schedule to quote. What we can hand over without a price attached is the timing: sunrise at 7:21 am, sunset at 5:35 pm, and roughly 26 days in an average December without a tenth of an inch of rain. For the statewide list of what costs nothing, our things to do guide has it.

Madison Blue Spring in December: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs on the light. Sunrise is 7:21 am and the air is near its 41.3°F average around then, so leave the water alone at first: arrive by 10, walk the bank, take the first immersion between 11 and 1 while the air climbs toward 65.0°F. Dry, changed and in warm layers by 2:30. That leaves three hours of low sun for a second session or for the drive to your bed, with closing time on your mind, since we could not verify it.

Day two depends on the sky. On the five December days that bring a tenth of an inch or more, and above all on the 1.3 days that bring a full inch, trade the morning for road miles: our road trip guide sets out the routes across north Florida. If it stays dry, run day one again but start earlier, accepting a colder hour on the bank in exchange for a longer afternoon. Manatee plans belong further south and later in winter, as that guide explains.

Madison Blue Spring in December vs November and January

Across the three months the air falls in a straight line and the rain totals climb in one. Afternoons go 71.4°F, 65.0°F, 62.8°F. Overnight lows go 46.6°F, 41.3°F, 38.6°F. Precipitation goes 2.47 inches, 3.12, 3.83. Wet days break the pattern: 3.6, then 5.0, then 4.1, so January carries the most rain across fewer rainy days than December. The vent reads near 73.2°F in all three columns.

Shift four weeks earlier and you gain 6.4 degrees on the afternoon, 1.4 fewer days with measurable rain and 0.65 inch less of it. You lose the contrast, because November’s average high sits 1.8 degrees under the water. Shift four weeks later and January costs 2.2 degrees on the afternoon and 2.7 on the night, adds 0.71 inch of rain, and hands back 0.9 of a rainy day. Both months are laid out in full at November and January.

Is December a good time to visit Madison Blue Spring?

Yes for anyone whose day is built around the water and who owns or rents proper thermal gear. The vent does not care that it is December, and roughly 26 dry days out of 31 is a good ratio for a weekend. No for anyone picturing a summer float: the state inventory lists no designated swimming area and no tube or kayak launch here, and 41.3°F mornings are unkind to plans that involve waiting around in a swimsuit.

If that reads like a no, November is the correction and January is not. November keeps the same water, puts afternoons at 71.4°F instead of 65.0°F, drops the rainy days to 3.6 from 5.0, and still has more than 10 hours 14 minutes of daylight to spend. January takes every one of those figures the other way: 62.8°F days, 38.6°F nights, 3.83 inches of rain.

December alone gives you a freezing sunrise and 73.2°F water in the same outing, at a spot where six nights a month reach 32°F and the afternoon still climbs to 65.0°F.

The last word

Pick a weekday in the first three weeks, put the thermal gear at the top of the bag, and set the day against the 5:35 pm sunset rather than the 7:21 am sunrise. One more figure for the drive down: the gauge that reads 73.2°F also measured 72 cubic feet per second leaving the vent, and that volume is why the water is clear, replaced faster than it can cloud. December does nothing to slow it. Confirm the park’s hours with the park before you set off, because we could not.

Sources & data for this guide

• December air normals, 1991-2020 (high 65.0°F, low 41.3°F, 3.12 in) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals, GHCN station USW00093845, Valdosta Rgnl AP, GA, about 27 miles from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Rain-day and frost counts (5.0 days at 0.10 in or more, 1.3 days at 1.00 in or more, 6.0 nights at or below 32°F) · NOAA NCEI, same station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
• November and January normals (71.4/46.6°F, 2.47 in, 3.6 days · 62.8/38.6°F, 3.83 in, 4.1 days) · NOAA NCEI, same station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Daylight, sunrise and sunset on December 15 (10h 14m, 7:21 am to 5:35 pm local) · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from 12:21 and 22:35 UTC · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Water temperature 73.2°F and flow 72 cubic feet per second · U.S. Geological Survey, National Water Information System, station 02319302 Madison Blue Spring, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
• No designated swimming area, no canoe, kayak or tube launch listed · 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
• Editorial admission: floridastateparks.org returned a 403 to our automated reads on Sep 11, 2026, so we publish no entrance fee and no opening hours, and myfwc.com’s manatee page renders client-side, so we carry no manatee count. We also could not verify a county lodging-tax rate. Hours, fees and gauges change · confirm with the park when you book.

To plan your stay

• Madison Blue Spring: When to Go, Month by Month Highs, Rain and Daylight
• Madison Blue Spring in January: Weather, Water Temperature and Freeze Nights
• Madison Blue Spring in November: Weather, Water Temperature and How It Compares With October and December
• Madison Blue Spring in February: 67°F Air, 73°F Water and 3.8 Freezing Nights

Nearby places

• Wes Skiles Peacock Springs: No Swimming Area, 68 Parking Spaces, Cave Diving
• Troy Spring: 71°F Water, the Madison Wreck and 25 Parking Spaces
• Ichetucknee Springs: Tubing, Swimming Areas and 909 Parking Spaces