FLORIDA · MANATEE SPRINGS · NOVEMBER
Manatee Springs in November flips the usual Florida arrangement. The air cools off and the water does not: a USGS instrument in the spring read 72.9°F (22.7°C) on September 11, 2026, and a vent like this one holds close to that figure all year. November’s normal afternoon high at the nearest official station is 74.4°F. For a few weeks the air and the water sit within two degrees of each other, and that near-match is what dates a trip to this month rather than to July.
What the month takes back is the morning and the evening. The normal low is 49.2°F, two nights in an average November drop to freezing, and on the 15th the sun is up for 10 hours 42 minutes, gone by 5:37 pm. Rain is the smallest worry: 2.10 inches spread over 3.4 days that record a tenth of an inch or more. Pack warm layers in the car, plan a short day, and the numbers work in your favor.
MANATEE SPRINGS AT A GLANCE · NOVEMBER
November gives you the driest air of the fall over a spring that never changes temperature, and charges for it with 49.2°F mornings and a sunset before 5:40 pm.
AIR 74.4°F / 49.2°F · WATER NEAR 72.9°F · 3.4 RAIN DAYS · 10H42M OF DAYLIGHT
Go for: a full midday outdoors without heat, 128 cubic feet per second of water leaving the vent, and an afternoon high that lands a degree and a half above the spring’s own temperature.
Think twice before: building the day around a swim or a paddle. Florida DEP’s 2024 facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area for the park, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch.
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 days74.4°F days, 2.10 inches, 3.4 wet days
- How cold the nights get49.2°F average low and two frost nights
- Crowds, fees and booking in NovemberWhat we verified, and what we could not
- Things to do at the spring this monthThe vent, the run and the walking day
- A two-day planTwo days built on 10h 42m of light
- November vs October and DecemberHow the three months compare on NOAA normals
- Is November the right month?Who should come now, who should wait
October’s own numbers, 82.2°F afternoons and 3.7 rain days, sit on our October page. Where this month lands in the state’s wider season belongs to the Florida calendar, and what an in-water manatee encounter involves elsewhere in the state is in our manatee guide. The normals below are November’s, and they come from one named station.
Manatee Springs weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days
| November, 1991-2020 normals | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 74.4°F |
| Average low | 49.2°F |
| Precipitation | 2.10 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.4 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 0.4 |
| Nights at 32°F or below | 2.0 |
| Daylight on Nov 15 | 10h 42m |
| Spring water at the USGS gauge | 72.9°F, read Sep 11, 2026 |
Every air figure here comes from NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00012833, the airport at Cross City, roughly 44 km (27 miles) from the spring. November’s normal high is 74.4°F, the normal low 49.2°F, and normal precipitation 2.10 inches. That is a real thermometer at a real airfield rather than a reanalysis grid cell, and it sits inland. Read it as regional air, not as the microclimate in the shade above the vent.
3.4 days of an average November record at least 0.10 inch of rain, roughly one day in nine. Only 0.4 day reaches a full inch, so a real soaking turns up in about two Novembers out of five. A wet day here usually costs an hour or two of the afternoon rather than the trip. The 2.10-inch monthly total is the smallest of the three fall months, against October’s 2.23 and December’s 2.95.
Between the 49.2°F low and the 74.4°F high there are 25.2 degrees inside a single day. Pack for both ends in one bag: fleece and long pants for the first hours, a T-shirt for mid-afternoon, a hat you want at dawn and forget by lunch. If anyone in the car intends to get wet, add a second towel and dry clothes, because 72.9°F water in 50-degree air takes far longer to shrug off than the same water in July.
On November 15 the sun clears the horizon at 6:55 am and sets at 5:37 pm Eastern Standard Time, 10 hours 42 minutes of daylight (sunrise-sunset.org computes 11:55 and 22:37 UTC for the same date). The last hour of daylight therefore begins at 4:37 pm, which is the hinge of any itinerary built around a drive. Slip by ninety minutes and you are walking back to the parking lot in the dark.
How warm is Manatee Springs in November?
The spring answers that question differently from the sky. The USGS gauge at station 02323566 read 72.9°F on September 11, 2026, and that is an instantaneous reading, not a monthly mean and not an average of daily maxima: a vent flowing 128 cubic feet per second has no season. Against it, November’s air runs from 49.2°F at dawn to 74.4°F in mid-afternoon. The water is warmer than the air through most of the morning and about a degree and a half cooler at the day’s peak.
Dress for 50 and strip to 74. A fleece over a T-shirt covers sunrise to mid-morning, and by 2 pm the fleece goes back in the bag. A windproof layer beats a thick one, since shade and breeze do more damage than the thermometer on a 74-degree Florida afternoon. Anyone planning to be in or beside the water wants dry shoes waiting in the car for the drive home.
Two nights in an average November fall to 32°F or below at the Cross City station. That number decides whether the trip means a camp chair or a heated room: a summer-weight sleeping bag is the wrong call for the second half of the month, and a windshield left out overnight can need scraping before a 7 am start. Whether the spring itself drops that far is a separate question, since the station stands 27 miles away.
How busy is Manatee Springs in November? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
November lands between two different weather stories: October still delivers 82.2°F afternoons, December brings 2.95 inches of rain across 4.6 wet days. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate data for this stretch of the Suwannee, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. The one calendar fact worth planning around is that the month’s final week carries Thanksgiving, and holiday weeks fill first wherever you sleep.
On an ordinary November weekend the constraint is not the crowd, it is the short day. A bed near the spring rather than an hour down the road buys back daylight at both ends of a 10-hour-42-minute window. For Thanksgiving week, lock the room or the site as far ahead as your dates allow. We have no reservation-lead data for the park, so we give no number of weeks.
We could not verify the local lodging-tax rate, so we quote no percentage. The gate is the same story: floridastateparks.org answers automated reads with a 403, so we cannot print an entrance fee or an opening hour. Assume there is a vehicle fee, confirm it with the park before you drive, and check our Florida cost guide for how the rest of a day out here adds up.
One upgrade changes this month rather than any other, and it is warmth plus light. A heated room instead of a tent on a freezing night, a headlamp for the walk back after the 5:37 pm sunset, and a second dry towel cost very little. Those three purchases fix the three things November does to a visit here.
Things to do in Manatee Springs in November
November allows a full midday outdoors that July does not, with an afternoon high of 74.4°F sitting a degree and a half above the spring’s 72.9°F. October’s 82.2°F afternoons make the water feel like a plunge. December’s 68.2°F make the bank feel colder than the water. The narrow gap between air and spring belongs to this month, and it lasts about four weeks.
The vent is the destination: 128 cubic feet per second leaving the ground at the USGS gauge, replaced faster than it can cloud, which is why the run stays clear after rain. That flow carries down to the Suwannee River. Plan around one absence: Florida DEP’s 2024 recreational facilities inventory lists no designated swimming area for Manatee Springs State Park, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch, so this is a walking and watching day rather than a rental day.
The water’s number holds steady across the year while the air’s moves, and that difference is the season here. Between October and November the normal high falls 7.8 degrees, from 82.2°F to 74.4°F, then another 6.2 by December. We could verify no manatee count and no arrival date for this park, because FWC’s manatee pages render client-side, and we will not print an animal schedule we have not read.
Since the fee schedule was unreadable, we cannot tell you what a November day costs at the gate or whether any part of it is free. What costs nothing beyond the entrance: first light at 6:55 am, the walk along the run, and the hour of low sun that starts at 4:37 pm. For the rest of the region’s free and paid options, our statewide list carries them.
Manatee Springs in November: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on 10 hours 42 minutes, so treat the clock as the budget. Sunrise at 6:55 am arrives near the 49.2°F low: leave at 8, be at the spring by 9 as the air climbs toward 74.4°F. Walk the run first while the light is low and the water reads clear. Eat around noon. Keep 2 pm to 4 pm for anything in or beside the water, the warmest slot of the day, and be at the car by 5:20.
Day two is the river day and the flexible one: the Suwannee bank and the drive in the morning, whatever the first day left undone in the afternoon. If yours falls on one of the 3.4 days that record a tenth of an inch, shift the walking to the drier half, since only 0.4 day in an average November delivers an inch or more. For a fully washed-out day, our road-trip guide has drives that work in rain.
Manatee Springs in November vs October and December
| 1991-2020 normals | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 82.2°F | 74.4°F | 68.2°F |
| Average low | 59.9°F | 49.2°F | 44.4°F |
| Precipitation | 2.23 in | 2.10 in | 2.95 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.7 | 3.4 | 4.6 |
| Air minus spring water (72.9°F) | +9.3°F | +1.5°F | -4.7°F |
Across the three months the air moves 14 degrees at the top and 15.5 at the bottom, while the spring stays where it is. Rain is lightest in November, 2.10 inches over 3.4 wet days, against October’s 2.23 over 3.7 and December’s 2.95 over 4.6. The gap between air and water carries the rest: October’s afternoons run 9.3 degrees above 72.9°F, December’s 4.7 degrees below, November’s a degree and a half above.
Shift the trip four weeks earlier and October hands back 7.8 degrees of afternoon warmth and mornings that start 10.7 degrees higher, for 0.13 inch and 0.3 wet day more. Shift it four weeks later and December takes 6.2 degrees off the afternoon, adds 0.85 inch across 1.2 extra wet days, and drops the air below the spring’s own temperature. November is the only one of the three where the two nearly meet.
Is November a good time to visit Manatee Springs?
Yes, for anyone who wants a whole day outdoors without heat: 74.4°F afternoons, 3.4 wet days, and water holding near 72.9°F as the air finally comes down to meet it. No, for a swimming-first weekend, since the state’s own facilities inventory lists no designated swim area here. And no for anyone who needs long evenings, because the light is gone by 5:37 pm on the 15th.
If the answer is no, October is the better shift: 82.2°F afternoons, 59.9°F mornings, and only 0.3 more wet days. That buys back the summer feel without August heat. Travelers who prefer cold air and quiet paths can wait for December’s 68.2°F and 4.6 wet days, with the understanding that the air then sits 4.7 degrees below the water.
What no other month hands over is the near-match between air and spring, 1.5 degrees apart in the middle of a November afternoon.
The last word
Book the short day rather than the long one and this month repays you. Florida law keeps a label, Outstanding Florida Spring, for the state’s historic first-magnitude springs as the Florida Geological Survey determines them, plus six written into the statute by name (Florida Statutes 373.802(5)). The gauge at the vent was pushing 128 cubic feet per second when we read it, and that volume is why a 49.2°F morning still finds clear water at 72.9°F. Drive up with warm layers and a headlamp, end the day by 5:30 pm, and confirm the gate fee before you leave home.
Sources & data for this guide
- November air normals, rain days and frost nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012833, Cross City AP, FL, about 44 km from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- October and December normals (82.2/59.9°F, 2.23 in, 3.7 days · 68.2/44.4°F, 2.95 in, 4.6 days) · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Spring temperature 72.9°F and discharge 128 cubic feet per second · USGS National Water Information System, station 02323566 Manatee Springs, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight of 10h 42m, sunrise 11:55 UTC and sunset 22:37 UTC on November 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · 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
- What we could not read: floridastateparks.org returns a 403 to automated reads and FWC’s manatee pages render client-side, so we quote no entrance fee, no opening hour and no manatee count. We also found no occupancy series and no lodging-tax rate · checked Sep 24, 2026