FLORIDA · ORLANDO · FEBRUARY
Orlando’s February puts a jacket on at breakfast and takes it off by lunch. The airport thermometer averages a 74.9°F afternoon and a 52.4°F dawn. Measurable rain falls on fewer than four days, and the Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) is months away in both directions. Manatees are gathering in the springs north of town, and the theme parks have not yet taken on March’s school-holiday crowds.
You have already chosen Orlando. The open question is the date: what February gives you compared with January and March, what it costs you, and whether moving four weeks either way would suit the trip better. The city itself has its own guide at Orlando, and the state’s twelve-month picture sits in the best time to visit Florida.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ORLANDO IN FEBRUARY
February gives Orlando mild 74.9°F afternoons and only 3.8 rain days before March’s school holidays reach the parks, so pack a jacket for 52.4°F mornings and plan the springs early in the day.
OUTSIDE HURRICANE SEASON · BEFORE MARCH SCHOOL HOLIDAYS · SUNSET 6:16 P.M. ON THE 15TH
Go for: theme-park days in mild afternoons before March’s family school holidays, manatee season at Blue Spring, and swims at Wekiwa’s steady 75.6°F spring.
Think twice before: building the trip around hot pool afternoons: the average high stays under 75°F, the average dawn is 52.4°F, and the airport logs a freezing night about once every five Februaries.
Climate: NOAA NCEI, station USW00012815 · Light: sunrise-sunset.org · Tax: Florida Department of Revenue · full sources at the end
On this page
- Orlando weather in FebruaryHighs of 74.9°F, lows of 52.4°F and 3.8 rain days
- How warm is Orlando in February?Morning layers, afternoon sleeves and the odds of frost
- Orlando crowds and prices in FebruaryMarch school holidays, airports and the 6% county room tax
- Things to do in Orlando in FebruaryBlue Spring, Wekiwa Springs and Kelly Park
- A two-day Orlando itinerary for FebruaryA springs day and a park day before the 6:16 p.m. sunset
- Orlando in January or March instead?Highs of 71.8°F and 78.9°F against February’s 74.9°F
- Is February a good time to visit Orlando?Who February suits, and why March is the fallback
Every climate figure here comes from one real thermometer: NOAA NCEI’s 1991–2020 official normals for station USW00012815 at Orlando International Airport, which we read on September 8, 2026. It is a station record and not a reanalysis grid cell averaged over a patch of countryside. It tells you what the airport measured, and a shaded spring run or a downtown street can read differently on the day.
Orlando weather in February: average highs, lows and rain days
| February normal | Orlando International Airport |
|---|---|
| Average high | 74.9°F (23.8°C) |
| Average low | 52.4°F (11.3°C) |
| Precipitation | 2.04 inches |
| Days with 0.10 inch or more | 3.8 |
| Days with 1 inch or more | 0.5 |
| Nights at 32°F or below | 0.2 |
| Daylight on February 15 | 11 h 14 min |
| Sunrise and sunset, February 15 | 7:02 a.m. and 6:16 p.m. EST |
Averaged over 1991 to 2020 at the airport station, February brings a high of 74.9°F (23.8°C), a low of 52.4°F (11.3°C) and 2.04 inches of precipitation over the month. These are NOAA NCEI official normals from a single named station, USW00012815, and they place February between a cooler January at 71.8°F and a warmer March at 78.9°F.
Rain of a tenth of an inch or more falls on 3.8 days in an average February, roughly one day a week. A day that tops a full inch comes 0.5 times a month on average, so about every other February brings one soaking day. For planning, keep one day of the trip movable and treat the rest as dry.
From the average low to the average high, the day climbs 22.5°F. Pack a fleece or light jacket for early starts, short sleeves for the afternoon, and long pants for the evening once the sun has set. Anything planned for the first hour after sunrise lands near the cold end of that climb.
On February 15 the sun rises at 7:02 a.m. and sets at 6:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, giving 11 hours 14 minutes of daylight. Orlando lies east of the Apalachicola River and keeps Eastern time, an hour ahead of Pensacola and Destin on the western Panhandle. Plan to finish outdoor sights by about 6 p.m.
How warm is Orlando in February?
February afternoons average 74.9°F at the airport and nights fall to 52.4°F, a spread of 12.5°C for readers who think in Celsius. Orlando sits inland, and we found no sea-temperature series for it, so we give no sea figure. The water close at hand is spring water: the USGS gauge at Wekiwa Springs near Apopka read 75.6°F on September 11, 2026, and the spring holds that temperature through the year. In February that puts the swimming area within a degree of the average afternoon high.
In practice, start the day in a light jacket over a T-shirt with closed shoes, and expect the jacket to be in your bag by early afternoon. For a spring swim, bring a towel and a warm top for climbing out, since the air after 5 p.m. is sliding back toward its 52.4°F overnight low.
Frost is rare but it happens. The airport records a night at 32°F or below 0.2 times in an average February, or about one freezing night every five years. If the forecast shows one during your stay, pack gloves for the morning and move any spring swim to the afternoon.
How busy is Orlando in February? Crowds and prices
February comes just before the busy stretch our sources identify: March fills the Orlando theme parks with family school holidays, while college spring break weighs more on the beach towns and spreads across the month because university calendars differ. We found no hotel occupancy series and no monthly room-rate data, so we call no month the cheapest. Florida’s holiday and spring-break peaks are covered in our Florida trip-cost guide.
Disney and Universal price tickets dynamically by date, so the day you choose sets the price. We quote none because any figure would be out of date within weeks. We found no lead-time data either, so we give no number of weeks for booking. For flights, MCO boarded 27,859,783 passengers in 2024, more than any other Florida airport, and Sanford SFB, to its north, boarded 1.4 million. SFB’s website blocked our connections, so we could not verify its distance to the parks. Our Florida flights guide covers each airport in turn.
Orange County, where Orlando and the parks sit, charges a 6.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid alongside the 6% state sales tax. On a room in the county, that adds 12% to the nightly rate. Budget it from the first quote, because booking sites do not always show it upfront.
The one extra expense that changes a February trip is a night inside a state park. Blue Spring has six cabins and Lake Louisa State Park has twenty, against 187 and 278 parking spaces respectively. Waking inside the gate means the boardwalk is yours before the lot fills.
Things to do in Orlando in February
February falls in manatee season. Water leaving the Upper Floridan aquifer holds its temperature year-round, and as the rivers cool in winter, the springs become the warmest water around, so manatees gather there. The spring itself has not warmed. Blue Spring State Park near Orange City is the winter manatee spring, and our manatee guide covers the rules for getting close.
The state’s 2024 facilities inventory gives Blue Spring 3,050 feet of boardwalk, the longest at any Florida spring park it counts, plus three observation platforms. Wekiwa Springs State Park, the nearest spring to Orlando, has one designated swimming area, one canoe, kayak and tube launch, 15.9 miles of paddling trail, 13.7 miles of hiking trail and 1,435 feet of boardwalk. Rock Springs, the tubing run at Kelly Park north of the city, read 75.0°F on the USGS gauge. Silver Springs State Park, home of the glass-bottom boats, is far larger, with 1,686 parking spaces and three launches.
February changes the air around these springs, not the water in them. The gauges read 75.6°F at Wekiwa, 75.0°F at Rock Springs and 74.3°F at Blue Spring on September 11, 2026, and spring water does not follow the calendar. At a February dawn of 52.4°F, Wekiwa’s water runs about 23°F warmer than the air. By the 74.9°F afternoon, water and air are almost level.
We cannot say which of these parks are free. The Florida State Parks website refused our reads, so we have no entrance fee, no opening hour and no manatee count, and fees vary by park and by season. Check each park’s page before you drive. The parking counts tell you when to arrive: 325 spaces at Wekiwa and 187 at Blue Spring fill on busy mornings, so aim to reach the gate soon after it opens.
Orlando in February: a two-day itinerary
Give day one to the springs. Leave soon after the 7:02 a.m. sunrise for Blue Spring and walk the boardwalk and its three platforms in your jacket while the air is at its coolest. Around late morning, move on to Wekiwa Springs and save the swim or the paddle for early afternoon, when the air nears its 74.9°F high. Leave the water by about 5:30 p.m. to be packed up before the 6:16 p.m. sunset. Confirm park hours before setting out, since we could not read them.
Day two is the dated theme-park ticket. If the forecast shows the inch-plus downpour that arrives about every other February, it is easier to move a spring than a dated ticket, so when you buy, choose the day with the better forecast for the park and keep the springs day flexible. Without a car, SunRail’s schedule lists no airport and no theme-park station. LYNX buses cover Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties at $2.00 a ride, or $4.50 for an All-Day Pass, which you must request from the driver before putting money in the farebox.
Orlando in February vs January and March
| NOAA normal, airport station | January | February | March |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 71.8°F | 74.9°F | 78.9°F |
| Average low | 49.5°F | 52.4°F | 55.8°F |
| Precipitation | 2.48 in | 2.04 in | 3.03 in |
| Days with 0.10 inch or more | 4.0 | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| Wekiwa spring water (steady; gauge read Sept 11, 2026) | 75.6°F | 75.6°F | 75.6°F |
| Hurricane season | Outside | Outside | Outside |
February afternoons run 3.1°F warmer than January’s 71.8°F and 4.0°F cooler than March’s 78.9°F. The lows climb in a similar way, from 49.5°F to 52.4°F to 55.8°F. February is the driest of the three at 2.04 inches, against 2.48 in January and 3.03 in March, while rain days barely move: 3.8 against 4.0 on either side. Spring water stays at Wekiwa’s 75.6°F in all three months.
Moving four weeks later to Orlando in March adds 4.0°F to the afternoon and 0.99 inch of rain, and it lands you in the family school holidays that fill the parks. Moving four weeks earlier to Orlando in January costs you 3.1°F in the afternoon, brings dawns down to 49.5°F and adds 0.44 inch of rain, with manatee season still underway.
Is February a good time to visit Orlando?
Yes, for most trips. February suits park-goers who want mild 74.9°F afternoons ahead of March’s school-holiday crowds, and spring visitors who want the manatee boardwalk at Blue Spring. It suits travelers less well if they want hot pool afternoons, because the average high stays under 75°F and dawn sits at 52.4°F. For trip length, our Florida orientation suggests four to seven nights in Orlando.
If warmth matters most, choose March: the average high reaches 78.9°F and the low 55.8°F. The trade-off is 3.03 inches of rain and parks busy with family school holidays, so families with fixed break dates should book early, and couples with free calendars can compare the weeks before committing.
Of the three months, February is the only one whose average afternoon (74.9°F) comes within a degree of Wekiwa’s 75.6°F spring water, and it has the smallest rainfall total, 2.04 inches.
The last word
February in Orlando calls for two layers and one decision: put the dated park ticket on the day with the steadier forecast and plan the springs around it. If the trip adds a Miami leg, Brightline covers about 235 miles between Orlando and Miami in roughly three and a half hours, with departures about every two hours. Fares change by date and class, so price the train on the day you book the park.
Sources & data for Orlando in February
- February, January and March normals, rain days, freezing nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991–2020, station USW00012815 (Orlando International Airport) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset on February 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to Eastern Standard Time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Eastern time east of the Apalachicola River · 49 CFR 71.5(f) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Hurricane season dates and peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Orange County 6.0% transient rental tax and 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 24, 2026
- MCO and SFB passenger counts · Federal Aviation Administration, CY2024 · checked Sep 24, 2026 · flysfb.com blocked our connections, so we give no SFB distance to the parks
- March school holidays and spring break spread · tourism sources · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Spring water temperatures · USGS National Water Information System, stations 02234600, 02234610 and 02235500 · instantaneous readings of Sep 11, 2026
- Parking, boardwalks, trails, launches and cabins · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory 2024 · checked Sep 11 and Sep 21, 2026
- Winter manatee gathering at springs · Southwest Florida Water Management District, The Hydrology and Water Quality of Select Springs (2001, revised 2011) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- LYNX fares and All-Day Pass rule · LYNX Fares & Passes · checked Sep 24, 2026
- SunRail stations · sunrail.com Schedules · checked Sep 24, 2026 · no fare could be read, so we give none
- Brightline route and frequency · gobrightline.com · checked Sep 24, 2026 · fares change by date, so we fix none
- We give no theme-park price, park hour, entrance fee or manatee count: Disney and Universal price by date, and floridastateparks.org refused our reads on Sep 11, 2026. Check operators when you book.