WAKULLA SPRING · AUGUST · NOAA 1991-2020 NORMALS
The USGS gauge inside the spring read 70.3°F on September 11, 2026, and it reads close to that on any given day of the year. Air temperature moves. The spring does not. In August the air above it averages a high of 91.5°F, so roughly twenty-one degrees separate the walk down from the water itself, and that gap explains most of what a hot Florida month does to a first-magnitude spring.
August also brings 7.60 inches of rain spread over ten wet days, 13 hours 16 minutes of daylight on the 15th, and one hard limit. Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park counts 300 parking spaces, and when the lot fills, the gate closes. For the park year round, the main Wakulla Springs guide holds the rest.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · WAKULLA SPRING · AUGUST
August puts a 91.5°F average high over water that reads about 70°F, with rain on ten days and 300 parking spaces deciding who gets in on a hot Saturday.
AIR 91.5°F / 73.2°F · WATER ABOUT 70°F · 7.60 IN OF RAIN · 300 PARKING SPACES
Go for: the 21-degree drop between the parking lot and the swim area, 13 hours 16 minutes of daylight in mid-August, and evening light until 8:19 p.m.
Think twice before: counting on a dry afternoon or a late arrival. Ten days in an average August record 0.10 inch or more, and the gate closes once the 300 spaces fill.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00093805 · Water: USGS gauge 02327000 · Facilities: Florida DEP inventory 2024
On this page
- August highs, lows and rain daysThe Tallahassee normals, 1991-2020
- How cold the spring water is70.3°F on the USGS gauge
- Will the parking lot fill?300 spaces and the closed gate
- What there is to do at the parkThe swim area, the boardwalk, the platforms
- Two days at the springAn hour-by-hour plan for August
- August, July or September?How the three months compare
- Is August a good month to go?Our verdict, with the September case
Every air figure here comes from one thermometer: NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals for station USW00093805, at Tallahassee Regional Airport, about 27 miles (44 km) from the spring. The water figure comes from a different instrument entirely, the USGS gauge in the spring itself, station 02327000.
Wakulla Spring weather in August: average highs, lows and rain days
| August at the Tallahassee station | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 91.5°F |
| Average low | 73.2°F |
| Precipitation | 7.60 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 10.0 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 2.4 |
| Daylight, August 15 | 13 h 16 min |
| Sunrise / sunset, August 15 | 7:03 a.m. / 8:19 p.m. |
NOAA’s 1991-2020 monthly normals give August a 91.5°F average high and a 73.2°F average low, with 7.60 inches of precipitation. Those numbers are measured at an official station, Tallahassee Regional Airport, not at the spring and not by a gridded reanalysis. They describe the air about 27 miles away. The spring’s own temperature comes from a gauge in the water and behaves nothing like them.
Ten days in an average August record at least 0.10 inch of rain, roughly one day in three. Of those, 2.4 deliver an inch or more, so two or three genuine soakings across the month is the normal shape. Florida’s wet-season rain arrives mostly as afternoon thunderstorms, and they take an hour or two out of an afternoon rather than the whole day. That 7.60-inch total lands on fewer days than July’s 11.2, so when it rains in August, it rains harder.
The daily swing is 18.3 degrees, from a 73.2°F dawn to a 91.5°F mid-afternoon, which is narrow by American standards. Nothing in the month calls for a jacket. Pack for the water instead: a towel that actually dries, a dry shirt for afterward, and shoes you can walk 285 feet of boardwalk in while wet. A 73°F morning after 70°F water feels cool for about ten minutes.
August 15 gives 13 hours 16 minutes of daylight, sunrise at 7:03 a.m. and sunset at 8:19 p.m. local time. The practical ceiling is the gate rather than the light: we could not verify the park’s closing hour, because the Florida State Parks site refuses automated reads. Call the park for the hour, and put the swim in the morning either way.
How warm is Wakulla Spring in August?
70.3°F, read on the USGS gauge at station 02327000 on September 11, 2026. That is a single instantaneous measurement rather than a monthly average of daily maxima, and the agency’s record shows the spring holding close to that value on any day of the year. Set against an August high of 91.5°F, the difference at the water’s edge is 21.2 degrees. Most people gasp on the first step in.
In practice you wear a swimsuit and little else from mid-morning on. The 73.2°F dawn is shirt weather for an hour, and by noon the water and the shade do all the work. Children stay in 70°F water longer than adults expect, then come out shivering into air reading ninety-one, so the dry towel matters more than the sunscreen most families pack twice.
Freezing nights do not happen here in August: the month’s normal low of 73.2°F sits more than forty degrees above it. We hold monthly normals only, with no daily extremes series, so we give no count of unusually cool nights. For the winter end of the year, where cold mornings are a real question, our Florida calendar takes it up.
How busy is Wakulla Spring in August? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
We found no occupancy series and no monthly lodging-rate data for Wakulla County, so we crown no month cheap and none expensive. What the state does count is capacity: 300 parking spaces at Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. On a ninety-degree Saturday that number decides the day, not a ticket booth.
Booking, in the usual sense, is not the lever. We could not verify an entrance fee, an opening hour or any reservation system, because floridastateparks.org answers automated reads with a 403. Arrival time is the lever that exists: the lot holds 300 cars, and once it fills the gate stays shut until somebody leaves. Treat a summer weekend as a first-thing-in-the-morning proposition and keep the flexible plan for the afternoon.
We could not verify a lodging-tax rate for Wakulla County, so no percentage comes from us. What we can say about the bed is geographic. The nearest large base is Tallahassee, about 27 miles up the road, and our Florida trip-cost guide handles the arithmetic of a week in the state.
The one place extra money changes August is that bed. A room close enough to put you at the gate as it opens buys the cool half of the day, an empty stretch of the 285 feet of boardwalk, and one space out of 300. The spring charges the same at 8 a.m. and at 2 p.m., but only one of those hours comes without the heat index. Where to stay in Florida sets out the regions.
Things to do in Wakulla Spring in August
August holds July’s heat to within six tenths of a degree, 91.5°F against 92.1°F, and takes 1.2 wet days off the count. Full summer air over water that never warms, with slightly better odds of a dry morning than July offers: that is the month’s particular deal. By September the average high has fallen 2.9 degrees and the evening has shortened, so the contrast you came for is a softer thing.
The state’s own facilities inventory counts what is actually there: one designated swimming area, 285 feet of boardwalk, two observation platforms and 0.2 miles of hiking trail, served by those 300 parking spaces. Nobody comes to Wakulla for distance walking. The swim area is the visit, the boardwalk is how you see the water without getting in, and the platforms are where the wildlife watching happens.
Water temperature is the constant and air temperature is the variable, so the same 70.3°F reading that stings in January reads as relief at two in the afternoon in August, when the gap runs 21.2 degrees. In September that same water sits under an 88.6°F average high, a gap of 18.3 degrees, and you feel the three degrees on the steps rather than in the water.
Florida law lists Wakulla among its Outstanding Florida Springs. The state’s springs page points at Wakulla for deep cave diving by researchers and scientists rather than for swimmers wandering in, so read that single designated swimming area as the extent of public water access. We could not verify a manatee count for August. Our manatee guide covers where and when that encounter is reliable.
Wakulla Spring in August: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on the sun. Sunrise is 7:03 a.m. in mid-August, so aim to be parked inside the first hour the gate is open. Walk the 285 feet of boardwalk and both observation platforms while the air still reads near 73°F. Swim from mid-morning, once 70.3°F water stops feeling punitive. Be under a roof or in the car by two, when the wet-season storms build. Return for the last hour of light: sunset is 8:19 p.m.
Day two repeats the morning and spends the afternoon somewhere with walls. Tallahassee sits about 27 miles away and absorbs a washed-out afternoon easily. With 2.4 days in an average August dropping an inch or more, make one half of a two-day visit movable. Lightning ends a swim before the rain does, and neither the boardwalk nor the two platforms offer shelter. Our Florida driving guide covers the car both versions of this plan require.
Wakulla Spring in August vs July and September
| July | August | September | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 92.1°F | 91.5°F | 88.6°F |
| Average low | 73.0°F | 73.2°F | 69.6°F |
| Precipitation | 7.14 in | 7.60 in | 4.91 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 11.2 | 10.0 | 6.2 |
| Spring water | about 70°F | about 70°F | about 70°F |
Across the three months the air moves 3.5 degrees at the top and 3.6 at the bottom, from July’s 92.1°F high to September’s 88.6°F, and from September’s 69.6°F low back up to August’s 73.2°F. Rainfall is where the real difference sits: 7.14 inches in July, 7.60 in August, then 4.91 in September, with wet days falling from 11.2 to 10.0 to 6.2. The water stays at roughly 70°F through all three.
Shift four weeks later and you gain 2.69 inches less rain, 3.8 fewer wet days and cooler sleeping at 69.6°F. You lose evening light, three degrees of afternoon heat, and with them some of the shock value of the swim, since the air-to-water gap narrows from 21.2 degrees to 18.3. Families chasing a cold plunge want August. Anyone planning an outdoor afternoon wants September.
Is August a good time to visit Wakulla Spring?
Yes, if you came to swim. A 91.5°F average high over water reading about 70°F is the whole reason to visit a Florida spring in summer instead of winter. No, if the day depends on walking, because the park counts 0.2 miles of hiking trail and ten days of the month bring measurable rain. And no if an early weekend start is impossible, since 300 spaces go fast.
September is the month to shift to when the answer is no. The high drops to 88.6°F, the low to 69.6°F, rainfall from 7.60 inches to 4.91, and wet days from 10.0 to 6.2. The water temperature does not budge, so nothing about the swim changes. Our Florida calendar puts that month against the rest of the state.
August alone concentrates the rain: 7.60 inches across 10.0 wet days against July’s 7.14 inches across 11.2, meaning heavier and shorter storms between long, hot, swimmable stretches.
The last word
Set the alarm. Air at 91.5°F, water at about 70°F, ten days of rain and 300 parking spaces are fixed, and arrival time is the one variable you own in August. One detail the statute publishes plainly, for a place most people treat as a swimming hole: Florida Statutes 373.802(5) protects every historic first-magnitude spring the Geological Survey recognizes, plus six more named by hand in the text. Wakulla is in that company, at 70.3°F, whatever the thermometer in Tallahassee says. The July page runs the same numbers a month earlier.
Sources & data for this guide
- August air normals: 91.5°F high, 73.2°F low, 7.60 in, 10.0 days at 0.10 in, 2.4 days at 1 in · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00093805, Tallahassee, FL · checked Sep 24, 2026
- July and September normals · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 station series · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset for August 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Spring water at 70.3°F · USGS National Water Information System, station 02327000 Wakulla Spring, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
- 300 parking spaces, one swimming area, 285 feet of boardwalk, two observation platforms, 0.2 miles of trail · Florida DEP Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Outstanding Florida Springs definition · Florida Statutes 373.802(5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Cave-diving language · Florida DEP, Visit a Spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- We could not verify an entrance fee, an opening hour or a manatee count: floridastateparks.org returns 403 to automated reads, and the FWC manatee page renders client-side · noted September 11, 2026