FLORIDA · MANATEE SPRINGS · AUGUST
Come down to the water on an August morning and two numbers work against each other. The air above the cypress is headed for a normal high of 89.9°F. The spring below it was reading 72.9°F the last time the USGS gauge was checked, and it reads close to that in January too. Seventeen degrees separate them, and you cross the whole gap in one step.
August charges for the privilege: 8.10 inches of rain across 11.5 wet days, with afternoons that build toward thunder on a fairly reliable schedule. The month is worth taking on those terms, as long as the good hours get booked before noon. For the park outside of any one month, our Manatee Springs guide covers the ground, and the statewide calendar handles the other eleven.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · MANATEE SPRINGS · AUGUST
August sets a 17-degree gap between hot air and cool spring water, and charges 8.10 inches of rain for it: take the mornings, keep the afternoons loose.
AIR 89.9°F / 72.9°F · SPRING NEAR 72.9°F · 11.5 RAIN DAYS · 13H 14M OF DAYLIGHT
Go for: first light on the spring run, water that ignores the heat index, and evening light that holds until 8:13 p.m.
Think twice before: driving out to swim. Florida’s own facility inventory lists no designated swimming area at the park, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch either.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, Cross City AP · Water: USGS gauge 02323566 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain days in AugustThe NOAA normals, 1991-2020
- How hot it gets, morning to afternoon89.9°F days, 72.9°F nights
- Is August crowded and expensive?What we can price and what we cannot
- Things to do at the spring in AugustThe vent, the water temperature, the state’s facility list
- A two-day plan built on August lightSunrise 6:59 a.m., sunset 8:13 p.m.
- August compared with July and SeptemberThree months of NOAA figures
- Is August a good time to go?Our verdict, and the month to move to
One word about where the instruments sit, before the figures start. The air normals below come from an airfield 27 miles away. The water figure comes from a gauge in the spring itself. They are different instruments measuring different things, and confusing them is the classic mistake at a Florida spring.
Manatee Springs weather in August: average highs, lows and rain days
| August normal (1991-2020) | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 89.9°F |
| Average low | 72.9°F |
| Precipitation | 8.10 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 11.5 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 2.4 |
| Daylight on August 15 | 13h 14m |
The air figures here are NOAA NCEI monthly normals for 1991-2020, measured at station USW00012833, Cross City AP, about 27 miles from the spring. August comes in at an 89.9°F average high, a 72.9°F average low and 8.10 inches of precipitation. That thermometer stands on an airfield rather than under the cypress on the spring run, and it reads air only. The water carries its own number, from its own gauge, and that number does not move with the calendar.
Rain arrives on 11.5 days of an average August at 0.10 inch or more, roughly three days in eight. Of those, 2.4 days deliver an inch or more, the kind of downpour that clears a boardwalk in a hurry. The north Florida summer pattern behind those counts is familiar: a clear hot morning, a build through early afternoon, one loud hour, then a rinsed evening. Anything that needs a dry 3 p.m. is a gamble in this month.
Seventeen degrees separate the 89.9°F high from the 72.9°F low, and nearly all of that cooling happens between midnight and eight in the morning. No part of that range calls for a sweater. A dry bag is the real packing decision, since 8.10 inches of rain spread over a month will find the phone and the car keys. A light rain shell beats an umbrella when wind comes with the storm, water shoes help on wet limestone, and repellent matters at dusk.
On August 15 the sun rises at 6:59 a.m. local time and sets at 8:13 p.m., for 13 hours 14 minutes of daylight (sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC). That gives two usable hours before eight, when the air sits nearest its 72.9°F low, and a second window after seven, when the heat falls off and the light turns gold over the run.
How warm is Manatee Springs in August?
The month’s normal high is 89.9°F and its normal low 72.9°F, a spread of 17.0 degrees. July runs a shade hotter by day at 90.1°F and September a little milder at 88.0°F, so August sits within about two degrees of both neighbors. No monthly normal reports humidity, and in north Florida in August it is humidity that makes 89.9°F feel heavier than the number suggests.
In practice you dress once for the morning and once for everything after. Before nine: quick-dry shirt, hat, water shoes, and the knowledge that the shade under the cypress does real work. After two: a dry change waiting in the car, because the 3 p.m. choice is usually between a storm and a sauna. Evening at seven is the friendliest air of the day, still warm enough that nobody reaches for a layer.
Freezing nights play no part in this month. We have no freeze-day count from the Cross City station for August, and with a normal low of 72.9°F the question does not come up. Cold air matters at this spring in winter, when warm spring water draws manatees in from the river, and our guide to seeing manatees in Florida covers that season. We could not verify any manatee count for the park, so no number appears from us.
How busy is Manatee Springs in August? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
August lands inside the American school vacation and inside hurricane season, which our Florida guide dates June 1 to November 30 on NOAA’s calendar. Past that calendar, we have nothing to rank with: we found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Levy County, so we crown no month expensive and none cheap. Summer weekends at a Florida state park fill before summer weekdays do, and that is a pattern rather than a measurement.
With no reservation-lead data to work from, the booking advice is about flexibility rather than lead time. Reserve something refundable, then fix the two actual days inside the last week, when a forecast is worth reading. With 11.5 wet days in a 31-day month, roughly one afternoon in three is the wrong one, and the traveler who can slide a date by 24 hours gets a far better trip than the one who booked in March.
On money we have to be straight with you. We could not verify an entrance fee, an opening hour or a county lodging-tax rate, so we quote no dollar figure and no percentage. Florida State Parks’ site returned a 403 to our automated reads on September 11, 2026, and telling you that beats printing a price we could not confirm. Check the official park page the morning you drive out, and build the rest of the budget with our Florida trip-cost guide.
There is one spend that genuinely changes August, and it sits in the parking lot. A rental with working air conditioning turns the 2 p.m. storm into a pause instead of an ordeal, and a room with a pool or a covered porch gives the afternoon somewhere to be. Our getting-around guide handles the car, and where to stay in Florida handles the porch.
Things to do in Manatee Springs in August
Of the three summer months we can measure, August gives the widest daily contrast: 89.9°F air over water sitting at 72.9°F, a 17-degree drop the second your shoulders go under. It also gives light until 8:13 p.m. on the 15th, which is enough to take the run twice in one day, once before the heat has built and once after it has broken.
The spring is the attraction, and the state gives it a legal category. Florida Statutes 373.802(5) defines an Outstanding Florida Spring as every historic first-magnitude spring the Florida Geological Survey recognizes, plus six more named by hand in the law. The USGS gauge on site, station 02323566, read 72.9°F (22.7°C) on September 11, 2026. One caution to read before driving: Florida’s Recreational Facilities Inventory for 2024 lists no designated swimming area at the park, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch.
The water pays no attention to the month. The air does: 90.1°F in July, 89.9°F in August, 88.0°F in September, against a spring that holds near 72.9°F all year. The gap between them is what makes a season here. In August it runs 17.0 degrees. By September it narrows to 15.1, a difference you notice at the exact moment you step in.
As for what costs nothing, we could not verify a fee schedule, so we make no claim about free days or free entry. What we can hand you is the daylight, 13 hours 14 minutes of it on August 15, and the plain fact that the two hours after 6:59 a.m. are the coolest and quietest of the whole day.
Manatee Springs in August: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on the light. Be moving by 6:30 for a 6:59 sunrise, at the water before eight, when the air is closest to its 72.9°F low and the surface has no glare on it. Give the run two slow hours. By eleven, drive out for an early lunch and a long indoor afternoon somewhere with air conditioning, since the 2.4 inch-plus rain days of an average August almost all arrive after noon. Come back at six for the second window, and let the 8:13 p.m. sunset call time.
Day two repeats the morning with less rush and adds the river side of the park, then heads out by mid-afternoon. If the sky turns early, treat it as a driving day: north Florida’s spring country strings together well, and our Florida road-trip guide and things-to-do guide both carry alternatives that work under a roof. Storms here pass rather than settle, so a washed-out 3 p.m. often leaves a clean 6 p.m. behind it.
Manatee Springs in August vs July and September
| Normal (1991-2020) | July | August | September |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 90.1°F | 89.9°F | 88.0°F |
| Average low | 72.5°F | 72.9°F | 69.8°F |
| Precipitation | 7.77 in | 8.10 in | 5.82 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 11.6 | 11.5 | 7.6 |
| Spring water | near 72.9°F | near 72.9°F | near 72.9°F |
Daytime air barely moves across the three: 90.1°F, 89.9°F, 88.0°F. Rain does the separating. August is the wettest at 8.10 inches over 11.5 days at 0.10 inch or more, while September falls to 5.82 inches over 7.6 such days. Nights separate them too, with September’s 69.8°F low sitting 3.1 degrees under August’s. The spring stays put near 72.9°F, and that figure is a single instantaneous USGS reading from September 11, 2026 rather than a monthly average.
Push the trip four weeks to September and you drop 3.9 wet days, cut 2.28 inches of rainfall and sleep in 69.8°F nights. You lose evening daylight, and you move into the statistical peak of Atlantic hurricane season: our Florida guide puts that peak around September 10 on NOAA’s calendar. Pull the trip back to July instead and you gain 0.2 degrees of daytime heat and lose a third of an inch of rain, which is the same month wearing a different name.
Is August a good time to visit Manatee Springs?
Yes, for early risers. If you can be at the water by eight and are content to hand the afternoon over to a storm, August delivers the sharpest version of what this place does: 89.9°F above, 72.9°F below, and light to spare at either end of the day. It is a poor bet for anyone who needs dry afternoons, for anyone who booked non-refundable inside hurricane season, and for anyone arriving expecting a marked swimming area, since the state’s own facility inventory lists none.
If that verdict lands wrong for your trip, September is the month to move to. Rainfall drops to 5.82 inches and wet days to 7.6, nights ease to 69.8°F, and the air still runs 88.0°F by day, so the contrast with the spring holds at 15.1 degrees. The trade is the hurricane peak around September 10, which argues for refundable rooms and a forecast check a week out. Our know-before-you-go guide covers the storm-season habits worth having.
Of these three months, August holds the widest gap between air and water at 17.0 degrees, and still has light at 8:13 p.m. to use that gap twice in a single day.
The last word
Set the alarm for 6:30 and the rest of August takes care of itself. The gauge that gives the temperature also measures flow, and on September 11, 2026 it recorded 128 cubic feet per second leaving the vent. That volume is why the water reads so clear on a hot morning: it is replaced faster than it can cloud, in August exactly as in February.
Sources & data for this guide
- August air normals (89.9°F / 72.9°F, 8.10 in, 11.5 and 2.4 rain days) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012833, Cross City AP, FL US, about 27 miles from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- July and September normals · same NOAA NCEI station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Sunrise 6:59 a.m., sunset 8:13 p.m. and 13h 14m of daylight on August 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, UTC values converted to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Spring water 72.9°F (22.7°C) and flow of 128 cubic feet per second · USGS National Water Information System, station 02323566 Manatee Springs, instantaneous readings · read Sep 11, 2026
- No designated swimming area and 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 and the FWC manatee page renders client-side, so we could not verify an entrance fee, an opening hour or any manatee count · Sep 11, 2026
- Hurricane season dates and the September 10 peak are NOAA figures carried on our Florida orientation guide · fees, hours and access change, so confirm with the park before you drive.