Homosassa Springs in December: Weather, 74°F Spring Water and the 197-Space Lot

HOMOSASSA SPRINGS · FLORIDA · DECEMBER

The spring at Homosassa reads close to 74°F every day of the year. December changes the air above it, not the water in it. NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals put the average December afternoon at 73.0°F and the average December night at 47.6°F, so the afternoon air now sits 1.3°F below the spring itself and the dawn air sits 26.7°F below it. That gap is the reason to come in this month, and it is also the reason the jacket goes in the car.

Daylight on December 15 runs 10 hours 22 minutes, and afternoons average 4.9°F cooler than November’s. What you get back is the wildlife walk the state park is known for, on 3,000 feet of boardwalk over water that never cools. Swimming is not part of the trip, and the season has nothing to do with it: Florida’s own 2024 facilities inventory records no designated swimming area at the park. The months on either side have their own pages, November and January.

On this page

• Homosassa Springs weather in December73.0°F days, 47.6°F nights, 3.4 rain days
• How cold do December nights get?A 25.4°F swing and 3.4 nights at freezing
• Crowds and prices in December197 parking spaces, and the fees we could not verify
• Things to do in Homosassa Springs in December3,000 feet of boardwalk and two observation platforms
• A two-day Homosassa Springs itineraryBuilt on sunrise at 7:15 a.m. and last light at 5:36 p.m.
• December compared with November and JanuaryAir, rain and water for the three months
• Is December a good time to visit?Yes for wildlife mornings, no for swimming

Every figure here is dated to December, with its source named where it appears. The park outside the calendar, the drive, the cost of a week and the in-water manatee trips all live elsewhere in our Florida coverage, starting with swimming with manatees and what a Florida trip costs.

Homosassa Springs weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

NOAA NCEI measured these normals at a working station, not in a model grid cell: the 1991-2020 monthly values for USW00012818, at Brooksville Hernando County Airport. That station stands about 27 miles (44 km) inland from the spring, so read 73.0°F and 47.6°F as the regional December air rather than as the reading at the boardwalk rail. The water is a separate number with a separate instrument. A USGS gauge in the spring itself, station 02310678, read 74.3°F, and it reads close to that on any date you pick.

2.56 inches falls across the month, and it does not fall evenly. An average December records 3.4 days with at least 0.10 inch, roughly one day in nine, and 0.6 day with an inch or more, so a genuine soaking lands in about three Decembers out of five. Put a seven-day stay against those odds and it averages under one wet day. Most December mornings on the boardwalk are dry ones, and the rain that does come is worth a hood rather than a canceled plan.

Twenty-five degrees and change separate the average afternoon from the average night, and that spread decides what goes in the bag more than the daytime figure does. A fleece or a light down for the first hour, a single shirt by two in the afternoon, and something you can put back on for the hour after sunset. Pack layers you can shed and carry rather than layers you have to wear, because the boardwalk runs 3,000 feet and you will walk it in both temperatures on the same day.

On December 15 the sun rises at 7:15 a.m. and sets at 5:36 p.m. local time, 10 hours 22 minutes end to end. Arrive at three in the afternoon and you have about two and a half hours of light for a walk you will want to take twice. Treat the drive as a morning job, and if you are coming from a Gulf base an hour or more away, leave in the dark. Our getting-around guide has the drive times.

How warm is Homosassa Springs in December?

Afternoons average 73.0°F, nights average 47.6°F, and 25.4°F sits between the two. Set that against the spring and the arithmetic turns unusual for Florida: the water is 1.3°F warmer than the average afternoon and 26.7°F warmer than the average night. The 74.3°F figure is a single instantaneous gauge reading rather than a monthly average, taken on September 11, 2026, and it is quoted because a spring of this class holds its temperature while the air above it swings through the year.

A 47.6°F dawn on a boardwalk over water is a hat-and-thin-gloves hour for most visitors arriving from a warmer state. The same walk at two in the afternoon is one layer and sleeves pushed up. Standing still costs more than walking, and the two observation platforms are where you will stand still longest, so carry the jacket even on the return leg. Bring a thermos rather than counting on a coffee counter: we could not verify what concessions operate inside the park in December.

An average December records 3.4 nights at 32°F or below at the Brooksville station. Those are pre-dawn readings on a day that still averages a 73.0°F afternoon, so a freezing night is not a freezing visit. It does mean a cold car and a scraped windshield if you sleep locally and leave before sunrise, and it means a proper sleeping bag if your December booking is a campsite rather than a room.

How busy is Homosassa Springs in December? Crowds, prices and the demand peak

Florida’s dry season runs November through April, and December sits inside it, which is a calendar fact rather than a crowd count. Beyond that we have nothing to rank with: we found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate figures for Homosassa Springs or Citrus County, so we crown no month cheap and no month the peak. What we can count is capacity at the gate. Florida’s 2024 facilities inventory records 197 parking spaces at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, and when the lot fills, the gate closes.

Without a rate series we will not tell you to book six weeks ahead or three. The number that governs a December morning here is 197, and no reservation touches it. Arrive early in a day that only runs 10 hours 22 minutes and the question of a full lot never comes up; arrive after lunch and you are gambling on other people leaving. For rooms across the wider coast, our where-to-stay guide sorts the Gulf bases.

We could not verify the lodging-tax rate that applies here, so we give no percentage and no nightly total. When you compare two quotes for the same December night, compare the figure at checkout rather than the headline rate, since the local add-ons are what separate them. Our Florida trip-cost guide lays out how a week adds up once the car, the fuel and the park stops are in.

An in-water manatee trip is the one December outlay that changes what you actually see, and it does not happen at this park: the 2024 inventory lists no swim area and no paddle launch at Homosassa Springs, so getting in the water means a licensed operator over on the Crystal River side. We could not verify December prices for those trips, so ask when you call. Our manatee guide explains how the encounters are run and what the rules on approach are.

Things to do in Homosassa Springs in December

“Of all of Florida’s springs offering the chance to observe native wildlife up close,” the Florida Department of Environmental Protection writes, “few are more famous than Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.” December is when that viewing comes with the largest contrast between what you are standing in and what you are looking at: air at 73.0°F in the afternoon, air at 47.6°F before breakfast, water at 74.3°F at every hour of both. Warm-month visits give you the same animals in a warmer, longer, more crowded day.

The state counts what the park holds: 3,000 feet of boardwalk, two observation platforms, 197 parking spaces. The spring is protected under Florida Statutes 373.802(5) as an Outstanding Florida Spring, the class the statute reserves for the historic first-magnitude springs, plus six more named by hand in the law. Plan the visit around the boardwalk and the platforms, because the inventory records nothing at the park for swimming, canoeing, kayaking or tubing. If in-water time is the point of the trip, it belongs on a different morning.

The gauge gives 74.3°F in December and close to 74.3°F in June, so the water is not what your date changes. The air is. The same boardwalk sits under a 77.9°F November afternoon, a 73.0°F December one and a 70.7°F January one, and under December nights averaging 47.6°F. Nothing about the spring differs between those three visits. What differs is whether you walk the 3,000 feet in a shirt or a jacket, and how early the light goes off the water.

Our sources carry no entrance fee, no opening hour and no December manatee count for this park: the Florida state parks site returns a 403 to automated reads, and fees vary from park to park and season to season, so a price copied from elsewhere would not transfer. Call the park before you build the morning around a number. The figures you can plan on are the ones we did read: sunrise at 7:15 a.m., last light at 5:36 p.m., and a lot that holds 197 cars.

Homosassa Springs in December: a two-day itinerary

Sunrise is 7:15 a.m. in mid-December, so leave your base in the dark and be at the lot by eight, while most of the 197 spaces are still open. Walk the 3,000 feet of boardwalk slowly while the air is nearest its 47.6°F average and the water sits at 74.3°F. Give the second hour to the observation platforms, where you stop moving and feel the cold. Break when the air climbs into the low 70s, then take the boardwalk back in the warmest part of the day, one layer lighter.

Day two goes to the water you cannot enter at the park. Book an in-water manatee trip with an operator on the Crystal River side, keep the afternoon loose, and let the 5:36 p.m. sunset set your return. If the date lands on one of the 3.4 days an average December records at 0.10 inch or more, flip the order: drive the coast while the rain works through, then take the boardwalk in the drier half of the day. An inch or more falls on 0.6 day in an average December, so a full washout is the exception.

Homosassa Springs in December vs November and January

December sits between its neighbors on every line but one. Afternoons average 73.0°F, which is 4.9°F below November and 2.3°F above January. Nights average 47.6°F, 4.7°F below November and 3.3°F above January. Rain moves furthest: 1.59 inches in November, 2.56 in December, 3.01 in January, with wet days running 3.0, 3.4 and 4.2. The spring ignores all of it and holds near 74.3°F through the three months, which is the line that makes the other four matter.

Shift four weeks earlier and you buy almost five degrees of afternoon and an inch less rain, and you give up the cold dawns that make the water feel warm. Shift four weeks later and January hands you the widest air-to-water gap of the three, 30.0°F at dawn, at the cost of 0.8 more wet days and 2.3°F off the afternoon. Both are written up in full: November for the warm version, January for the cold one.

Is December a good time to visit Homosassa Springs?

Yes, if you came to walk and watch. A 73.0°F afternoon over 74.3°F water, 3.4 rain days in 31, and 3,000 feet of boardwalk with two platforms on it make a strong December, and the cold morning is part of what you came for. No, if you came to get in the water at the park itself. The 2024 state inventory records no designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch, and no date on the calendar changes that.

If the answer is no because you wanted to swim, the month is not the problem and the site is: move the water half of the trip to a licensed in-water manatee operator on the Crystal River side and keep the park for the boardwalk. If the answer is no because 47.6°F nights are colder than your holiday deserves, November is the month to shift to, at 77.9°F afternoons, 52.3°F nights and 1.59 inches of rain across 3.0 wet days.

December offers one thing neither neighbor matches: an afternoon you can walk in a single shirt, at 73.0°F, over water that is still warmer than the air by 1.3°F.

The last word

Set the alarm before you book anything else, because what time you leave matters more in December than what week you choose. Sunrise at 7:15 a.m., 197 spaces, 3,000 feet of boardwalk, and a spring that measured 74 cubic feet per second leaving the vent on the day the gauge was read. That volume is why the water is clear: it is replaced faster than it can cloud. Carry the jacket you will take off by noon, and phone the park for the fee and the opening hour, since those are the two numbers we could not read.

Sources & data for this guide

• December normals, rain days and freeze nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012818, Brooksville Hernando Co AP, about 27 miles from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
• November and January normals used in the comparison · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Sunrise 7:15 a.m., sunset 5:36 p.m. and 10h 22m of daylight on December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Spring water at 74.3°F and discharge of 74 cubic feet per second · U.S. Geological Survey NWIS, gauge 02310678, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
• 3,000 feet of boardwalk, two observation platforms, 197 parking spaces, and the absence of a designated swim area or paddle launch · Florida DEP Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Outstanding Florida Spring classification · Florida Statutes 373.802(5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Quoted description of the park · Florida DEP, Visit a Spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
• We could not verify the entrance fee, the opening hours, a December manatee count or the local lodging-tax rate: floridastateparks.org returns 403 to automated reads and the FWC manatee page renders client-side · checked Sep 24, 2026

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Homosassa Springs: Monthly Highs, Rain Days and the Quiet Months
• Homosassa Springs in January: Weather, Crowds and the 74°F Spring
• Homosassa Springs in November: Weather, Crowds and Spring Water at 74°F
• Homosassa Springs in February: Weather, Crowds and 74°F Spring Water

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