FLORIDA · MANATEE SPRINGS · SEPTEMBER
September at Manatee Springs pits two temperatures against each other. The air over this part of Levy County averages an 88.0°F afternoon for the month. The water leaving the spring read 72.9°F on September 11, 2026, and it reads close to that in January, in May, in any week you pick. A spring has no season. The air above it has a very obvious one, and September is the last month that still belongs to summer.
Florida law keeps a category called Outstanding Florida Springs for every historic first-magnitude spring, as the Florida Geological Survey determines them, plus six more named by hand in the statute (Florida Statutes 373.802(5)). We did not verify which side of that line Manatee Springs sits on. We did read its gauge: 128 cubic feet per second leaving the vent on September 11, 2026, enough volume that the water is replaced faster than it can cloud.
SEPTEMBER AT A GLANCE · MANATEE SPRINGS
September keeps almost all of August’s heat but sheds 2.28 inches of its rain, and the spring holds near 72.9°F whatever the air is doing.
AIR 88.0°F / 69.8°F · 5.82 INCHES · 7.6 RAIN DAYS · WATER NEAR 72.9°F
Go for: a 15.1-degree drop between the average afternoon and the water at the vent, four fewer wet days than August, and light until 7:37 p.m. in mid-month.
Think twice before: booking anything nonrefundable inside hurricane season, and before assuming a marked swim area: the Florida DEP’s 2024 inventory lists none at Manatee Springs.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, Cross City AP · Water: USGS gauge 02323566 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Manatee Springs weather in September88.0°F days, 5.82 inches, 7.6 wet days
- What to wear morning and afternoonThe 18.2-degree swing
- Entrance fee, lodging tax and when to bookWhat we verified and what we could not
- How cold the spring water is72.9°F and 128 cubic feet per second
- A two-day plan around the heatNine in the morning to 7:37 p.m.
- September, August or OctoberThe three months, side by side
- Is September worth the driveWho should come, who should wait
August ran 1.9 degrees hotter by day and 2.28 inches wetter, and it has its own page. For the park in any month, its trails and its facilities, start at the main guide. September changes the air, not the spring, and the numbers below are dated accordingly.
Manatee Springs weather in September: average highs, lows and rain days
| September, air | Normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 88.0°F |
| Average low | 69.8°F |
| Precipitation | 5.82 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 7.6 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 1.9 |
| Daylight on Sept 15 | 12h 22m |
Those normals come from NOAA’s NCEI 1991-2020 series, and the thermometer sits at Cross City AP, station USW00012833, about 27 miles from the spring. That is a real station, not a modeled grid cell. Two cautions follow. Twenty-seven miles is twenty-seven miles, so read 88.0°F as the county’s afternoon rather than the reading under the cypress. And every figure here describes the air. The water keeps its own number, from its own source.
7.6 days in an average September pick up at least a tenth of an inch, which is roughly one day in four, and 1.9 of those top a full inch. The month’s total is 5.82 inches. In Florida’s wet season most of it arrives as afternoon convection rather than all-day drizzle, so a wet day costs a few hours and not the trip. Rain at the vent costs nothing at all. It costs the picnic, the two-lane drive home, and the hour you wanted the heat for.
Nights average 69.8°F against those 88.0°F afternoons, an 18.2-degree swing that humidity keeps from feeling like relief. Pack for wet and warm rather than for cold: a quick-dry towel, a second shirt for the drive home, shoes you can soak, and a shell small enough to live in a daypack. Cotton rained on at four in the afternoon is still damp at seven.
On September 15 the sun is up at 7:15 a.m. and gone at 7:37 p.m. local time, 12 hours 22 minutes between them. Tree cover trims that at both ends, so treat 7 p.m. as the practical close of the day and plan to be walking back toward the parking area, not toward the water, when the light turns orange.
How warm is Manatee Springs in September?
88.0°F by day, 69.8°F at night, 18.2 degrees apart. Humid air gives its heat back slowly, so the cool stretch of a September morning is short: by nine the number is already climbing, and by early afternoon it sits at or near the day’s high. That shape, more than the peak itself, decides when you do things.
Mornings ask for very little: whatever you plan to get wet in, plus a shirt with sleeves, since shade under the cypress runs cooler than an open parking area. By two in the afternoon nothing woven is welcome, and the useful items are a hat, water, and the towel already in the bag. Evening changes little, because a 69.8°F average low arrives near dawn, long after most visitors have driven off.
No freezing night appears in the September normals we read, and with an average low of 69.8°F none is plausible. The first genuinely cool air is an October matter, and even there the average night reads 59.9°F, nearly twenty-eight degrees above freezing. Bring warm-weather kit and stop thinking about the cold.
How busy is Manatee Springs in September? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
September sits inside hurricane season. Our Florida timing guide dates it June 1 to November 30, with the statistical peak around September 10, and that fact moves Florida bookings more than any school calendar does. We found no occupancy series and no monthly rate series for this part of Levy County, so we crown no month cheapest and no month dearest. On the calendar alone: summer family travel has ended, and the winter months have not started.
We could not read the park’s reservation window either, because floridastateparks.org answered our automated reads with a 403 on September 11, 2026. The booking advice is therefore procedural rather than numeric. Reserve refundable, confirm by phone in the week before you drive, and watch the tropics during that same week. A disturbance three weeks out tells a weekend visitor almost nothing.
The county lodging-tax rate we could not verify, so we give no percentage. The general shape still holds: Florida adds tourist development tax and sales tax at checkout, not inside the nightly rate on the booking screen. For how that lands across a whole week in the state, our trip-cost guide does the arithmetic.
One line item changes September more than any other, and it is not the room. Pay the refundable rate instead of the prepaid one. In a month averaging 5.82 inches of rain and carrying named-storm risk, the gap between those two fares is the only premium that reliably pays out.
Things to do in Manatee Springs in September
September does one thing no mild month can: it makes 72.9°F water feel like a rescue. The average afternoon is 88.0°F, a 15.1-degree drop the moment you are in it. The month also hands you a calmer sky than the one before, 7.6 days of measurable rain against August’s 11.5, and 5.82 inches against 8.10. Nearly the same heat, with a third less water falling on it.
Everything at Manatee Springs happens around the vent. The USGS gauge there, station 02323566, gave 72.9°F and 128 cubic feet per second on September 11, 2026. Two things the state record does not give: the Florida DEP’s 2024 Recreational Facilities Inventory lists no designated swimming area at Manatee Springs, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch either. We also could not read the park’s entrance fee or its opening hours, so we quote neither.
Nothing leaving the vent knows what month it is. The air does all the changing, and that is what makes a season here. In October the average afternoon falls to 82.2°F, so the gap across the waterline narrows from 15.1 degrees to 9.3, and the average October night, 59.9°F, drops below the spring itself. Same water, read as cool in September and as warm six weeks later.
Free in September and free in every other month: the gauge. Station 02323566 posts temperature and discharge through the day, so you can see what the spring is doing before you commit to the drive out. Whether you need a car to get there at all, and what that costs in this corner of the state, belongs to our getting-around guide. The short answer is yes. If you came to Florida for the animals rather than the water, the manatee guide handles that, and we found no manatee count for September here.
Manatee Springs in September: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs early and late, with a hole in the middle. Sun up at 7:15 a.m. in mid-month, so be at the park by nine while the air is still in the seventies. Vent time from late morning onward, when 88.0°F outside and 72.9°F in the water do their best work together. Between three and five, the wet-season storm window, do the drive, the town, the groceries. Come back for the last hour and leave when the light goes, at 7:37 p.m.
Day two can run in reverse: slow morning, water in the early afternoon, road home before dark. If the sky turns, the numbers to hold are 7.6 and 1.9, the wet days and the days topping an inch. An inch here tends to arrive fast rather than all afternoon. Lightning ends water time no matter how the sky looks ten minutes later, and the gauge keeps reading straight through it.
Manatee Springs in September vs August and October
| August | September | October | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 89.9°F | 88.0°F | 82.2°F |
| Average low | 72.9°F | 69.8°F | 59.9°F |
| Precipitation | 8.10 in | 5.82 in | 2.23 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 11.5 | 7.6 | 3.7 |
| Spring water | Same vent, no seasonal cycle | 72.9°F, read Sept 11, 2026 | Same vent, no seasonal cycle |
August runs 1.9 degrees hotter by day, 89.9°F against 88.0, and about three degrees warmer at night, 72.9 against 69.8. It also drops 8.10 inches of rain across 11.5 wet days, where September manages 5.82 across 7.6. October is the real break in the curve: 82.2°F afternoons, 59.9°F nights, 2.23 inches, 3.7 wet days. Through all three, the spring holds its 72.9°F reading.
Shift four weeks later and you gain 3.59 inches of dry sky and roughly half the wet days, and you give up the heat that made the water worth entering, with the gap across the waterline falling from 15.1 degrees to 9.3. Shift four weeks earlier and August returns a slightly hotter afternoon in exchange for almost four extra wet days. September is the middle term of that trade.
Is September a good time to visit Manatee Springs?
Say yes to September if you want a near-peak contrast between air and water, 15.1 degrees on an average afternoon, with a third less rain than August, and if you can book something you are allowed to cancel. Say no if your dates are locked and prepaid, if humid 69.8°F nights wreck your sleep, or if you were counting on a marked swim area and a rental tube: the state’s 2024 inventory lists neither here.
If the answer is no, October is the month to take instead. 2.23 inches across 3.7 days is a different climate from 5.82 across 7.6, the afternoons settle at a walkable 82.2°F, and the season’s statistical peak is behind you. The cost is the plunge itself: at 82.2 by day and 59.9 at night, the spring stops being a rescue and becomes an ordinary swim.
One thing September holds that October cannot: an 88.0°F afternoon over water that never moves off 72.9, with 2.28 inches less rain than the August that produced almost the same heat.
The last word
Book refundable, read the gauge the morning you leave, and put the vent in the middle of the afternoon rather than the start of the day. One figure worth carrying: August’s average night bottoms out at 72.9°F, exactly what the USGS gauge gave the spring water on September 11. September pulls the nights down to 69.8, so in the hour before dawn the warmest thing in the park is the water.
Sources & data for this guide
- September air normals, 88.0°F high, 69.8°F low, 5.82 inches · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012833, Cross City AP, FL, about 27 miles from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Rain-day counts, 7.6 days at 0.10 in and 1.9 days at 1.00 in · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series · checked Sep 24, 2026
- August and October normals used in the comparison · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series, same station · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise 7:15 a.m. and sunset 7:37 p.m. on September 15, 12h 22m · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Water temperature 72.9°F and discharge 128 cubic feet per second · USGS National Water Information System, station 02323566 Manatee Springs, single instantaneous reading rather than a monthly mean · checked Sep 24, 2026
- No designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch listed · Florida DEP 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
- Entrance fee, opening hours and any manatee count: floridastateparks.org returned 403 to our automated reads and the FWC manatee page renders client-side, so we publish no price, no hour and no animal count · checked Sep 24, 2026