Manatee Springs in December: Weather, Water Temperature and Frost Nights

MANATEE SPRINGS · FLORIDA · DECEMBER

The spring read 72.9°F the last time the USGS gauge in it was checked, and a December afternoon at the nearest official thermometer averages 68.2°F. December inverts the usual Florida order: the water is warmer than the air above it, and the coldest moment of the day is the walk back to the car. That gap, 4.7°F on an average afternoon and 28.5°F at dawn, decides how you pack, when you arrive and how long you stay in.

What the month takes back is daylight and comfort. You get 10 hours 19 minutes of it on December 15, 6.2 nights at or below freezing in an average December, and 4.6 days with measurable rain. Florida’s own facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch for the park, so a December trip here is built around walking, watching and cold-morning photography. If those constraints sink the plan, November runs 6.2°F warmer by day.

On this page

• December weather at Manatee Springs68.2°F days, 44.4°F nights, 4.6 wet days
• Water temperature at the spring72.9°F on the USGS gauge
• Crowds and costs in DecemberWhat we verified and what we could not
• Things to do in the park this monthThe vent, the statute and the swim question
• A two-day plan around short daylightHour by hour, 7:18 a.m. to 5:36 p.m.
• December vs November and JanuaryHow the three months compare on air, rain and water
• Is December a good month to go?Our verdict, and who should shift dates

Every figure here comes from two instruments. The air numbers are NOAA NCEI monthly normals for 1991–2020, measured at station USW00012833, Cross City AP, about 27 miles from the spring. The water number is a U.S. Geological Survey reading taken in the spring itself, station 02323566. Where our sources go quiet, on fees, hours and manatee counts, we say so instead of filling the gap.

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

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information puts December at 68.2°F by day and 44.4°F by night in the 1991–2020 normals. It matters where that thermometer stands: station USW00012833 sits at Cross City AP, roughly 27 miles from the spring, and it measures air only. We used no gridded reanalysis for those two figures, and we found no station inside the park. Read them as the regional December, good to a county and not to a parking lot.

Rain totals 2.95 inches across the month, spread over 4.6 days that record at least a tenth of an inch. That works out to measurable rain roughly one day in seven, usually a passing band instead of an all-day gray. A soaking of an inch or more shows up 0.8 times in an average December, so budget one washed-out afternoon in a four-day trip and count yourself lucky when it misses.

Between the 44.4°F night and the 68.2°F afternoon sits 23.8°F of daily swing, and that spread sets the packing list more than the headline high does. Fleece and long pants at sunrise, a t-shirt by two in the afternoon, and every layer you shed has to go into a bag. Anyone getting wet needs a second set: a thick towel, dry clothes waiting in the car, a wool hat for the twenty minutes after.

Daylight runs 10 hours 19 minutes on December 15. Converted to local time, the sun rises at 7:18 a.m. and sets at 5:36 p.m., which means the light is already going by half past four and the last stretch of any drive home happens in the dark. Two short days beat one long one in this month, and a bed within half an hour of the gate buys the morning back.

How cold is the water at Manatee Springs in December?

The USGS gauge in the spring, station 02323566, read 72.9°F (22.7°C) on September 11, 2026. That is one instantaneous measurement and not a monthly average, and it is the honest form of the number: the gauge reads close to it every day of the year, because the spring has no season and the air above it does. Set against December’s normals, the water sits 4.7°F above the average afternoon and 28.5°F above the average night.

Mornings ask for more clothes than the day’s high suggests. At 7:18 a.m. you are standing in air near 44.4°F next to water that feels warm by comparison, so the shock comes on the way out. By mid-afternoon the air catches up to 68.2°F and a long-sleeve shirt does the job. Plan on more than a few minutes in the water and you want a neoprene top, plus a full change of clothes for the drive.

Freezing nights are not a rumor here. An average December brings 6.2 nights at or below 32°F at the Cross City station, which concerns campers long before it concerns day visitors: it sets a sleeping-bag rating and a water-jug decision. On exactly those mornings the gauge still reads near 72.9°F, and mist forms over the surface where more than 40°F of difference meet.

How busy is Manatee Springs in December?

We found no visitation counts for the park and no monthly room-rate series for the area, so we crown no month busy and no month cheap, December included. The calendar is all we can stand on: the Christmas and New Year holidays fall in the second half of the month, and they are public holidays across the country. Whether that fills this particular parking lot is something our sources do not measure, and we will not guess it for you.

Booking follows the same discipline. Our sources carry no reservation window and no campsite count for the park, so we give no lead time in weeks. Call the park or open its reservation system before you commit to dates, and if the holiday stretch is the only week you have, lock the bed first and build the rest of the trip around it. Our Florida basics covers the paperwork side.

On tax, we could not verify a lodging-tax rate for the county, so we give no percentage. We also could not verify an entrance fee or an opening hour: floridastateparks.org returned a 403 to our automated reads, and the state wildlife agency’s manatee page renders in the browser rather than in the file we could read. A gate price quoted for another Florida park does not transfer, since fees are set park by park and season by season.

The one budget line that changes a December visit is warmth. A neoprene top, a towel thick enough to matter and dry clothes in the front seat cost less than a night’s lodging, and they decide whether the 44.4°F morning becomes a memory or a retreat. Proximity is the second: with 10 hours 19 minutes of daylight, a plain bed ten minutes from the gate beats a better one an hour away.

Things to do in Manatee Springs in December

The inversion is the December attraction. November afternoons average 74.4°F and sit above the water; December’s 68.2°F does not, so the spring becomes the warm surface in the landscape instead of the cool one. At 7:18 a.m., with the air near 44.4°F, that difference is visible as mist. Bring the camera and the fleece, be at the gate when it opens, and give the first ninety minutes to the water’s edge.

Everything in Manatee Springs State Park orbits one vent, and Florida law has a category for water like this: Statute 373.802(5) defines Outstanding Florida Springs as every historic first-magnitude spring the Florida Geological Survey identifies, plus six named by hand in the statute. Our reading of the law names the class and not each member of it, so we stop there. What we can name at the spring is the instrument: gauge 02323566, 72.9°F, steady across the year.

Air moves, water does not, and December is where that shows. From November to January the afternoon drops 8.5°F at Cross City while the gauge stays put, so the same water asks for a different plan each month. In December the plan is short immersions and long walks, with the warm hours from about one to four in the afternoon doing the work. The state’s facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area and no launch, so check with the park before you load a kayak.

Naming what is free would mean naming what is charged, and we cannot: the park’s own site would not answer our automated reads, so we carry no entrance fee and no opening hour. The manatee question belongs to our manatee guide, and we found no count and no seasonal figure for this spring, so we promise no animals. What December reliably supplies is cold air over warm water, and that costs nothing extra.

Manatee Springs in December: a two-day itinerary

Day one starts before the light. Sunrise is 7:18 a.m., the first hour hovers near 44.4°F, and the mist is on the water while it lasts. Walk the water’s edge until nine, warm up with coffee in the car, then use ten to one for distance as the air climbs. Keep the middle of the afternoon, the warmest slice of a 68.2°F day, for any time in the water. By 4:30 the light is fading, and you are back at the car before 5:36 p.m.

Day two can be shorter, which matters on a weekend: repeat the dawn hour if the first one delivered, then leave by early afternoon so the drive home stays in daylight. If the weather turns, and 4.6 days in December record measurable rain, the spring is unaffected: 2.95 inches fall across the whole month and the flow does not notice. Swap the long walk for a short one, keep dry clothes up front, and push the outdoor hours to the second morning.

Manatee Springs in December vs November and January

Across the three months the air falls and the rain rises, in that order. November averages 74.4°F by day and 49.2°F at night. December takes 6.2°F off the afternoon and 4.8°F off the night, and January removes a further 2.3°F and 2.6°F. Rain follows the same slope: 2.10 inches over 3.4 wet days, then 2.95 over 4.6, then 3.38 over 5.7. The gauge in the spring ignores all of it and stays near 72.9°F.

Shift four weeks earlier and you buy 74.4°F afternoons and 1.2 fewer wet days, at the cost of the inversion: November air sits above the water, so the spring reads cool. Shift four weeks later and January hands you 1.1 more wet days, 0.43 inch more rain and 2.6°F colder nights for identical water. Both neighbors have their own page, November and January, with the same station behind the figures.

Is December a good time to visit Manatee Springs?

Yes, if you came to look at water more than to live in it. December suits campers with a bag rated for 6.2 freezing nights, photographers who want mist at 7:18 a.m., and anyone who prefers 68.2°F air to an August walk. No, if the whole plan is a swim day or a paddle: the state’s facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch for this park, and 10 hours 19 minutes of daylight leaves little slack.

If that lands on no, November is the month to take instead. Afternoons at 74.4°F and 3.4 wet days make an easier outdoor day, and nights at 49.2°F ask much less of the gear you have to carry. What November cannot give is the gap: at 74.4°F the air is warmer than the 72.9°F water, and the spring stops being the warm place in the picture.

December alone puts 28.5°F between the dawn air and the water, and that single measurement is the reason to pick this month over its neighbors.

The last word

Shape the trip around daylight before temperature: 10 hours 19 minutes means two half-days beat one long one, and the bed near the gate is the purchase that pays for itself by the second sunrise. Then look at the water and know why it does that. The same USGS gauge measured 128 cubic feet per second leaving the vent, replaced faster than it can cloud. That is the clarity you drove for on a 44.4°F morning.

Sources & data for this guide

• December normals, rain days and freezing nights (68.2°F, 44.4°F, 2.95 in, 4.6 days, 0.8 day, 6.2 nights) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991–2020, station USW00012833, Cross City AP, FL · checked Sep 24, 2026
• November and January normals used in the comparison · same NOAA NCEI series and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Daylight length, sunrise and sunset for December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Spring water at 72.9°F (22.7°C) and flow of 128 cubic feet per second · USGS National Water Information System, station 02323566 Manatee Springs, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 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 state wildlife agency’s manatee page renders client-side, so we have no entrance fee, no opening hour and no manatee count, and we invent none · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Hours, fees and reservation rules change · confirm with the park before you drive.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Manatee Springs: Monthly Highs, Rainfall and the Quietest Weeks
• Manatee Springs in January: Weather, Freezing Nights and 72.9°F Spring Water
• Manatee Springs in November: 74.4°F Air, 72.9°F Water and Two Frost Nights
• Manatee Springs in February: Weather, Crowds, Prices and Water Temperature

Nearby places

• Fanning Springs: Water Temperature, 130 Parking Spaces and One Swimming Area
• Gilchrist Blue Springs: Swimming, Parking Spaces and How Cold the Water Is
• Ginnie Springs: Water Temperature, Swimming and Cave Diving