FLORIDA · MANATEE SPRINGS · MAY
By the middle of May the air over this bend of the Suwannee is doing something the spring never does. The afternoon averages 86.7°F, the hour before dawn averages 62.7°F, and the vent below the surface holds near 72.9°F in every month of the year. That gap of roughly fourteen degrees is the whole reason people plan a late-spring drive out here.
What May takes away is mostly what it has not yet handed over. The same weather record gives June 7.00 inches of rain across 9.1 wet days; May stops at 2.74 inches and 4.7. If you are still choosing a month for the state rather than a date for this park, our Florida timing guide sorts all twelve.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · MANATEE SPRINGS
May puts 86.7°F afternoons over a spring that sits near 72.9°F all year, and it does it four weeks before June’s 7.00 inches of rain arrive.
AIR 86.7°F / 62.7°F · RAIN 2.74 IN · 4.7 WET DAYS · SPRING NEAR 72.9°F · DAYLIGHT 13H 41M
Go for: a fourteen-degree gap between the 86.7°F afternoon and the 72.9°F spring, 13 hours 41 minutes of daylight on May 15, and a month that averages only 2.74 inches of rain.
Think twice before: planning a paddle day or a marked swim: Florida’s recreational facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch at this park, and we could not verify the entrance fee or the opening hours.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, Cross City AP · Water: USGS gauge 02323566 · Facilities: Florida DEP 2024 inventory · full sources at the end
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain days in MayThe NOAA normals for the month
- How cold the spring water is72.9°F water under 86.7°F air
- Crowds, fees and booking in MayWhat we could verify and what we could not
- Things to do at Manatee Springs in MayThe vent at 128 cubic feet per second
- A two-day plan built on 13 hours of daylightThe hour-by-hour version
- May vs April vs JuneHow the three months compare
- Is May a good time to visit?Our verdict, and the month to move to
Everything below is dated to May. The park itself, the rest of the year included, sits at the main Manatee Springs guide.
Manatee Springs weather in May: average highs, lows and rain days
| Manatee Springs in May | Figure |
|---|---|
| Average high | 86.7°F (30.4°C) |
| Average low | 62.7°F (17.1°C) |
| Precipitation | 2.74 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.7 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 0.9 |
| Daylight on May 15 | 13 h 41 min |
| Spring water, gauge reading | 72.9°F (22.7°C) |
Every air figure here comes from NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 monthly normals, and the thermometer behind them stands at Cross City Airport, about 27 miles (44 km) from the spring. That station gives May an average high of 86.7°F, an average low of 62.7°F and 2.74 inches of precipitation. It measures air. The spring has no season at all, so read these normals as the conditions you walk through rather than the ones you step into.
Measurable rain falls on 4.7 days in an average May, roughly one day in six or seven, and only 0.9 of those days tops a full inch. Most May rain is therefore an hour of your afternoon rather than a lost trip. A wet day costs you dry walking and photographs, not the spring, since 72.9°F water is indifferent to what is falling on top of it.
Twenty-four degrees separate the 62.7°F dawn from the 86.7°F afternoon, and that spread decides your bag more than the average does. A long-sleeve layer for the first two hours, a hat and serious sun cover for the middle five, a dry change of clothes for anyone who gets in. Leave the spare layer in the car and pack for both ends of the day.
May 15 runs 13 hours 41 minutes of daylight, with sunrise at 6:37 a.m. and sunset at 8:18 p.m. local time. A visit that starts at eight in the morning still has light after dinner, and the last hour before sunset is the best-lit one of the day. Plan the drive back while that light lasts.
How warm is Manatee Springs in May?
The water answers first. A USGS gauge in the spring, station 02323566, read 72.9°F (22.7°C) on September 11, 2026, with 128 cubic feet per second leaving the vent. That is one instantaneous reading rather than a monthly average, and it is still the right number: the discharge is replaced faster than the sun can warm it, so the gauge reads close to 72.9°F whatever the calendar says. Against an 86.7°F May afternoon, getting in is a drop of 13.8 degrees.
What you wear splits by the clock. At seven in the morning the average May day sits at 62.7°F and a fleece is not ridiculous. By three in the afternoon the same day averages 86.7°F and shade, water and a hat stop being optional. One planning note for anyone coming to swim: the state’s recreational facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area at this park and no canoe, kayak or tube launch, and our manatee swimming guide covers the places where the state does organize that.
Cold nights are not a May question here, and we will not invent a count: the normals we read give monthly means, not freeze-day totals, so we report no number of frost nights. With a mean low of 62.7°F, the coldest thing in the park in May is the spring at 72.9°F.
How busy is Manatee Springs in May? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
May sits on the hinge of the Florida year. April runs 2.90 inches of rain across 4.1 wet days, June jumps to 7.00 inches across 9.1, and May holds at 2.74 and 4.7. That places the month at the end of the dry stretch the rest of the state books solid and ahead of the summer storms. On price we stop there: we found no occupancy series and no room-rate series for this corner of Florida, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive.
Booking is where the honest answer is short. Florida State Parks’ pages returned a 403 to our reads, so we could not verify the entrance fee, the opening hours or the number of campsites, and we will not borrow a price from another park, because fees vary by park and by season. Call before you drive. If the spring is one stop in a longer loop with a rental car, our Florida trip cost guide is built for that arithmetic.
We could not verify a local lodging-tax rate either, so we give no percentage. The tax lands on your room, not on the park, which means the overnight line of your budget belongs to whichever town you sleep in rather than to the spring.
The one thing worth paying more for in May is proximity. A bed close enough for an eight o’clock arrival buys the 62.7°F end of the day and leaves the 86.7°F end for lunch out of the sun. Driving up after breakfast on a busy weekend buys the afternoon instead, the hotter and fuller half of both.
Things to do in Manatee Springs in May
May does one thing its neighbors cannot. In April the air averages 80.1°F and the 72.9°F water registers as merely cool. In June the air reaches 89.5°F but carries 7.00 inches of rain and 9.1 wet days with it. May holds 86.7°F afternoons against 4.7 wet days, so the contrast runs at close to full strength while the sky mostly cooperates.
The vent is the attraction, and the USGS put a figure on it: 128 cubic feet per second on September 11, 2026, at 72.9°F. Volume is why the water reads clear rather than green, since it is replaced faster than it can cloud. What the 2024 state inventory does not list for this park is a designated swimming area or a paddle launch, so build the day around walking, looking and short time in the water.
The gauge will read the same in November. The air will not, and that is what makes a month here. Step out of 86.7°F May air and the spring lands as cold water. Do the same in April, 6.6 degrees cooler, and it lands as brisk. June stretches the gap to nearly seventeen degrees, then charges 7.00 inches of rain for the privilege.
Free is the word we cannot verify. The state park site refused our reads, so we have no entrance fee, no opening hour and no free day to report for May, and we found no manatee count for the month either. Manatees crowd Florida’s springs in the cold season, and the manatee guide has the sites organized for it.
Manatee Springs in May: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on the light. Sunrise is 6:37 a.m. in mid-May, so an eight o’clock arrival hands you the cool end of a 24-degree day: the spring first, time in the 72.9°F water while the air is still in the seventies (est.), lunch out of the sun as the afternoon climbs toward 86.7°F. Keep the middle of the day for the drive to wherever you sleep, then come back for the last hour. Light holds until 8:18 p.m.
Day two is the flexible one. Of the 4.7 rain days in an average May, only 0.9 goes past a full inch, so a shower usually costs an hour rather than a morning. Draw the wet one and the fix is simple: swap the early hours for driving and return at four, when the sun is high and the crowd has thinned. A rained-on spring still reads 72.9°F. Our getting-around guide has the road detail for this part of the state.
Manatee Springs in May vs April and June
| April | May | June | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 80.1°F | 86.7°F | 89.5°F |
| Average low | 55.0°F | 62.7°F | 70.6°F |
| Precipitation | 2.90 in | 2.74 in | 7.00 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.1 | 4.7 | 9.1 |
| Spring water | No seasonal swing | 72.9°F gauge reading | No seasonal swing |
April to May adds 6.6 degrees to the afternoon and 7.7 to the night, and it subtracts rain rather than adding it: 2.74 inches against 2.90. May to June is the real step. Days gain 2.8 degrees, nights gain 7.9, and the rain column multiplies by two and a half, from 2.74 inches to 7.00. Wet days nearly double, 4.7 to 9.1. The spring reads near 72.9°F through all three.
Move four weeks earlier and you gain 55.0°F nights, 4.1 wet days and easier midday walking, then lose the contrast: 80.1°F over 72.9°F is a seven-degree difference, not fourteen. Move four weeks later and you gain the strongest gap of the three at 89.5°F, then pay 9.1 wet days and 7.00 inches for it. May is the version most people have in mind when they say spring.
Is May a good time to visit Manatee Springs?
Yes for anyone whose day is built around cool water, long light and a drive that can start early: 86.7°F air, 72.9°F water, 13 hours 41 minutes of daylight and under three inches of rain in the month. No if your plan needs a marked swim area or a paddle launch, since the state inventory lists neither. No, too, if you need a quoted entrance fee before you leave home, because we could not obtain one.
When the answer is no, April is the month to move to rather than June. April costs you 6.6 degrees of afternoon warmth and returns 55.0°F nights, 4.1 wet days and 2.90 inches of rain, which keeps the middle of the day comfortable for a family stay. June is warmer at 89.5°F, but its rain total more than doubles April’s and its wet-day count reaches 9.1.
No other month pairs an 86.7°F afternoon with a 72.9°F spring and still keeps its rain column under three inches.
The last word
Book the bed close enough for an eight o’clock arrival and the rest follows: you get the 62.7°F end of the day before the 86.7°F end shows up, and the 8:18 p.m. sunset gives the evening back. One fact we have kept in reserve. Florida law reserves the label Outstanding Florida Spring for the historic first-magnitude springs determined by the Florida Geological Survey, plus six written by name into the statute. We could not confirm from our sources whether this spring sits on that list, and the gauge reads 72.9°F in May as in January.
Sources & data for this guide
- May normals, rain days and the April and June figures · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012833, Cross City AP, FL, about 27 miles from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset for May 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Water temperature 72.9°F and discharge 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 · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Definition of Outstanding Florida Springs · Florida Statutes 373.802(5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Entrance fee, opening hours and manatee counts: floridastateparks.org returned 403 to our automated reads and myfwc.com renders client-side, so we could not verify any of the three · Sep 11, 2026